Oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides

Sulfides react faster with hydrogen peroxide and alkyl hydroperoxides than do alkenes. For this reason, transition metal catalysts are rarely necessary, but these reactions are acid catalyzed and first order in both sulfide and peroxide. The acid (HX) can be as weak as alcohol or water but the effectiveness (of the oxidation) is determined by the pXa of the acid. Sulfides also react faster with peroxides than do ketones (see the Baeyer-Villiger reaction, sec. 3.6). Formation of the sulfone in these reactions is straightforward, but requires more vigorous reaction conditions. It is usually easy to isolate the sulfoxide from oxidation of a sulfide. Direct conversion of a sulfide to a sulfone requires excess peroxide and vigorous reaction conditions (heating, long reaction times, more concentrated peroxide). 

Another common oxidizing agent is sodium m-periodate (NaI04). Leonard used sodium periodate to oxidize methylphenyl sulfide to the sulfoxide in near-quantitative yield. l In that report, many methods were summarized for oxidizing sulfides, including nitric acid, hydrogen peroxide, chromic acid, ozone, peroxyacids. 

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Section 16 16 Oxidation of sulfides yields sulfoxides then sulfones Sodium metaper lodate IS specific for the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides and no fur ther Hydrogen peroxide or peroxy acids can yield sulfoxides (1 mole of oxidant per mole of sulfide) or sulfone (2 moles of oxidant per mole of sulfide)... 

A number of studies describing the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides by biological oxidizing agents have been published over the years2 9,13,107- Microbial systems are often... 

Oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides and oxidation of thiols to disulfides... 

The oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides are occasionally found to be unsatisfactory, since the resulting sulfoxides are easily oxidized to sulfones. In order to avoid the further oxidation of sulfoxides into sulfones, several oxidizing agents have been selected. Recently, we found that BTMA Bt3 is the most effective and satisfactory oxidizing agent for this purpose. That is, the reaction of sulfides with a calculated amount of BTMA Br3 and aq. sodium hydroxide in dichloromethane at room temperature, or in 1,2-dichloroethane under reflux, gave sulfoxides in good yields (Fig. 28) (ref. 36). 

Encapsulation in Y zeohte was also the method chosen to immobihze Mn complexes of C2-symmetric tetradentate hgands (Fig. 24) [75]. These materials were used as catalysts for the enantioselective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides with NaOCl. The lack of activity when the larger io-dosylbenzene was used as an oxidant was interpreted as an indication that the reaction took place inside the zeolite microporous system. Both the chemo- and enantioselectivity were dependent on the structure of the sulfide. (2-Ethylbutyl)phenylsulfide led to better results than methylphenylsulfide, although in all cases the enantioselectivity was low (up to 21% ee). 

This enantiomeric specificity has been of interest in other contexts, and stereospecific biotransformation has been observed. Examples include the enantiomeric oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides (Chapter 11, Part 2) and steroid and triterpene hydroxylation (Chapter 7, Part 2). 

There has been considerable interest in the enantiomeric oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides and illustrative examples include the following ... 

Oxidation of Sulfides to Sulfoxides and Sulfones - Sodium Periodate-Silica... 

Rj = PhCH2 R2 = Ph Rj = Ph, n-C12ttz R2 = Me Scheme 6.34 Oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides and sulfones by silica-supported sodium periodate. 

Oxidation of Sulfides to Sulfoxides - lodobenzene Diacetate-Alumina... 

Scheme 6.35 Oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides by alumina-supported iodobenzene diacetate.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO ) reacts with a wide variety of functional groups and it is the reagent of choice for a number of synthetic transformations. For example, the selective oxidation of sulfide to sulfoxide by NO forms the basis for the commercial production of dimethyl sulfoxide (from dimethyl sulfide) via a catalytic procedure (see below).250 Some representative examples of oxidative transformations carried out with NO are presented in Chart 8. 

Oxidation reactions are not limited to those that occur at a carbon centre. The perfluorinated Ni(F-acac)2-benzene-CgFi7Br system described above was also active for the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides and sulfones [28], A sacrificial aldehyde is required as co-reductant, but the reaction may be tuned by changing the quantity of this aldehyde. If 1.6 equivalents of aldehyde are used, the sulfoxide is obtained, whereas higher quantities (5 equivalents) lead to sulfones. Fluorous-soluble transition metal porphyrin complexes also catalyse the oxidation of sulfides in the presence of oxygen and 2,2-dimethylpropanal [29],... 

Selenoxides are protonated by sulfonic acids and the corresponding hydro-xyselenonium sulfonate salts are soluble oxidants for the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides.Chlorooxaselenuranes have also been used for the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides. ... 

According to this correlation model, in which the principles of steric control of asymmetric induction at carbon (40) are applied, the stereoselectivity of oxidation should depend on the balance between one transition state [Scheme 1(a)] and a more hindered transition state [Scheme 1(6)] in which the groups and R at sulfur face the moderately and least hindered regions of the peroxy acid, respectively. Based on this model and on the known absolute configuration of (+)-percamphoric acid and (+)-l-phenylperpropionic acid, the correct chirality at sulfur (+)-/ and (-)-5 was predicted for alkyl aryl sulfoxides, provided asymmetric oxidation is performed in chloroform or carbon tetrachloride solution. Although the correlation model for asymmetric oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides is oversimplified and has been questioned by Mislow (41), it may be used in a tentative way for predicting the chirality at sulfur in simple sulfoxides. 

Asymmetric oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides occurs in the presence of chiral catalysts. It was found (53) that oxidation of benzyl methyl sulfide with iodine suspended in (i )-2-methyl-2-phenylsuccinate 33 buffer gives optically active benzyl methyl sulfoxide 34 having 6.35% optical purity. Much higher asymmetric... 

Since diorganyl sulfides and sulfoxides can be mutually interconverted electrochemi-cally [222] (for the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides and further to sulfones, see Sect. 9.2.3), sulfoxides take an intermediate position between sulfides and sulfones (Eq. 27). 

Colonna, S., Gaggero, N., Pasta, P., Ottolina G., Enantioselective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides catalysed by bacterial cyclohexanone monooxygenases. Chem. Commun., 1996, 2303. 

In determining the diversity of reactions which may be catalysed by polyleucine, it has been shown that the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides can be performed, achieving excellent levels of asymmetric induction. Thus, when polyleucine is coated onto a platinum electrode, oxidation of sulfides to optically active sulfoxides has been achieved in 77% e.e. and 56% yield, (Scheme 11) [22]... 

The kinetics of oxidation of several para-substituted anilines and aliphatic acetals by peroxomonosulfate in aqueous acetic acid have been investigated. In the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides by peroxymonosulfate (Oxone), the observed increase in second-order rate constants with increasing concentration of H2SO4 has been shown to be due to the increasing polarity of the medium, rather than to acid catalysis. Similar conclusions were arrived at for the oxidation of aryl thiobenzoates and thiol-phosphorus(V) esters. 

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