Dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, activator dimethyl sulfoxide

The original Pfittner-Moffatt procedure for alcohol oxidation by activated dimethyl sulfoxide utilized dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) and a source of protons such as polyphosphoric acid or pyridinium tri-fluoroacetate. The use of strong acids such as the common mineral acids must be avoided since, although acidic conditions are initially required, the reaction must readily become basic in the later stages of the process. Mechanistically it is reasonable to suggest that the activation follows the pattern whereby initial attack of the nucleophilic sulfinyl oxygen of dimethyl sulfoxide, with the protonated carbodiimide, forms a sulfonium isourea. This is followed by displacement of dicyclohexylurea by the alcohol to form an alkoxysulfonium salt. Base treatment of this salt forms an ylide, which collapses via the proven cyclic mechanism to the carbonyl compound and dimethyl sulfide (Scheme 4). 

There are several methods reported in the literature for transforming vicinal diols into ct-diketones while avoiding the risk of C-C bond cleavage.26 Examples include the standard Swem conditions (dimethyl sulfoxide and oxalyl chloride followed by triethylamine), or the use of DMSO activated by acetic anhydride, pyridine-sulfur trioxide complex, or dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (Mq/J-att oxidation). Diones are also obtained by treatment with benzalacetone as a hydride acceptor in the presence of catalytic amounts of tris(triphenylphosphine)ruthenium dichlonde [(PPh RuCFl.27 Recent developments include the use of w-iodoxyben/.oic acid28 or the oxoammonium salt of 4-acctamidoletramethylpipcridine-1-oxyl and y -toluencNulfonic acid.29... 

In more recent works, the use of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide has been abandoned because the reaction works satisfactorily with acid catalysts alone, followed by bases such as triethylamine or diisopropylethylamine, which gives, sometimes, even better yields than triethylamine [1012,1023. Several activators are being used, and the best seems to be oxalyl chloride (theSwern oxidation) [1023,1149]. Other activators are mentioned in the section Oxidation of Primary Alcohols to Aldehydes. The advantages of oxidations with dimethyl sulfoxide lie in the mildness of the reagent and in the low temperatures, sometimes -45 °C [1020] or -60 °C [1023], at which the reactions are run. 

Oxidations using dimethyl sulfoxide activated by various reagents began with discoveries by Komblum and co-workers that primary tosylates and certain a-bromo ketones could be converted into aldehydes and glycoxals, respectively, by treatment with dimethyl sulfoxide as the oxidising agent. This was followed by the discovery several years later by Pfitzner and Moffatt that alcohols could be oxidised to carbonyl compounds with dimethyl sulfoxide, dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) and phosphoric acid at room temperature.2 Eventually the method developed by Swern and co-workers, involving activation of dimethyl sulfoxide with oxalyl chloride, came to be the most synthetically useful and widely applied of these mild oxidation procedures.3-6... 

Mild oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols, promoted by dicyclohexylcarbodiimide activation of dimethyl sulfoxide, evidently involving the alkoxysulfonium ylides, which rearrange intramolecularly to generate aldehydes and ketones, respectively ... 

Note Pfitzner-Moffatt reaction represents oxidation of primaiy and secondary alcohols by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) activated with carbodiimides, usually dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC). Intermediary alkoxysulfonium ylides rearrange to aldehydes or ketones. This reaction yields urea as a by-product that is difficult to... 

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