Organooxygen and Organosulfur Compounds

Gallium(III) Lewis acids interacted with the oxygen n electrons of strained oxiranes, which were attacked by nucleophiles. Utimoto found that the presence of a catalytic amount (8mol%) of Me3Ga promoted the alkynylation of oxiranes with lithium 

The activation of organosulfur compounds by GaCl3 was also reported. In the presence of GaCl3 and water, thioacetals were hydrolyzed to aldehydes or ketones 

---