Racemization of sulfoxides

Kinetic studies on the thermal racemization of the sulfonium salt 211 revealed that the process requires much lower activation energies when compared with thermal racemization of sulfoxides. Comparison of the relative rates for racemization of sulfonium salts 211, 212, and 213 was taken (151) as evidence that racemization of 211 is the result of pyramidal inversion, not of an alternative dissociation mechanism. On the other hand, Brower and Wu (249) concluded that the volume of activation for the racemization of sulfonium ion 211, AF = +6.4 ml/mol, is more compatible with a transition state in which partial dissociation has occurred. 

The acceleration of racemization of sulfoxides in acetic anhydride by adding Lewis acids, such as AICI3 (271,276,277), is consistent with the mechanism above, since the formation of acetoxysulfonium ion is facilitated. 

Nitrogen tetroxide also causes rapid racemization of sulfoxides however, the reaction takes place without decomposition (279,280). This process is initiated by the formation of a sulfonium salt, which then undergoes partial ionization to form a dication intermediate. 

In the mid-1960s Mislow started a research program on the mechanism of the thermal racemization of sulfoxides [97-99]. In the course of these efforts he recognized an enormous racemization rate acceleration for (R)-allyl-p-tolyl sulfoxide ((R)-151) as compared to benzyl or, even more pronounced, to alkyl sulfoxides (Scheme 42). For this compound, prepared by Andersen synthesis [100,101], he found a racemization rate exceeding that of the phenyl-substituted sulfoxide by a factor of 560 000. Based on kinetic measurements Mislow et al. determined the activation parameters to be AH = 22 kcal mor ... 

Another drawback of the classical Andersen procedure is that it allows for isolation of diastereoisomerically pure (5)-(-)-menthyl p-toluene sulhnate in a poor 30% yield. An early improvement pioneered by Hebrandson employed the known racemization of sulfoxides by HCl in an epimerization/equilibration technique to increase the yield of (5)-(-)-menthyl p-toluene sulhnate to 90% from the initial (R) and (5) diastereoisomeric mixture [14]. This adaptation has been described in detail by Solladie and the proposed epimerization/equilibration is... 

Addition of racemic allylic sulfoxide anions to 2(5//)-furanone gives y-1,4-addition adducts1. The simple and induced diastereoselectivities are completely analogous to that of 2-cyclopen-tenone described earlier. 

From studies on the addition of racemic allylic sulfoxide anions of 3-substituted l-(phenyl-sulfinyl)-2-propenes to racemic 4-tcrr-butoxy-2-cyclopentenone, it was found that (El-allylic sulfoxides give. vyw-products, and (Z)-allylic sulfoxides give anti-productsx. 

Racemic mixtures of sulfoxides have often been separated completely or partially into the enantiomers. Various resolution techniques have been used, but the most important method has been via diastereomeric salt formation. Recently, resolution via complex formation between sulfoxides and homochiral compounds has been demonstrated and will likely prove of increasing importance as a method of separating enantiomers. Preparative liquid chromatography on chiral columns may also prove increasingly important it already is very useful on an analytical scale for the determination of enantiomeric purity. 

The observations of the interconversion of allylic sulfenates and sulfoxides made by Braverman and Stabinsky34-38 are confirmed by the work of Mislow and coworkers44-47 who approached the problem from a different angle, namely, enhanced racemization of optically active allylic sulfoxides. 

In order to account for the unusually facile thermal racemization of optically active allyl p-tolyl sulfoxide (15 R = p-Tol) whose rate of racemization is orders of magnitude faster than that of alkyl aryl or diaryl sulfoxides as a result of a comparably drastically reduced AH (22kcalmol- ), Mislow and coworkers44 suggested a cyclic (intramolecular) mechanism in which the chiral sulfoxide is in mobile equilibrium with the corresponding achiral sulfenate (equation 10). 

Racemic pyrone sulfoxide 52 undergoes a diastereoselective inverse-electron-demand 2 + 4-cycloaddition with 1,1-dimethoxyethylene to afford adduct 53 in > 95% yield (equation 49)100 this is the first example of an asymmetric Diels-Alder cycloaddition using a sulfinyldiene as an electron-deficient enophile101. 

Molecules having only a sulfoxide function and no other acidic or basic site have been resolved through the intermediacy of metal complex formation. In 1934 Backer and Keuning resolved the cobalt complex of sulfoxide 5 using d-camphorsulfonic acid. More recently Cope and Caress applied the same technique to the resolution of ethyl p-tolyl sulfoxide (6). Sulfoxide 6 and optically active 1-phenylethylamine were used to form diastereomeric complexes i.e., (-1-)- and ( —)-trans-dichloro(ethyl p-tolyl sulfoxide) (1-phenylethylamine) platinum(II). Both enantiomers of 6 were obtained in optically pure form. Diastereomeric platinum complexes formed from racemic methyl phenyl (and three para-substituted phenyl) sulfoxides and d-N, N-dimethyl phenylglycine have been separated chromatographically on an analytical column L A nonaromatic example, cyclohexyl methyl sulfoxide, did not resolve. 

Ohta and coworkers used a bacterium, Corynebacterium equi IFO 3730, rather than a fungus, to oxidize eight alkyl phenyl and p-tolyl sulfides to their respective sulfoxides (119, 120) of configuration R. Virtually all of the sulfur compounds were accounted for as the sum of uncreacted sulfide, sulfoxide and sulfone. The enantiomeric purities of the sulfoxides obtained were quite good and are shown below in parentheses. The formation of the allyl sulfoxides in high optical purity is noteworthy. The authors believe that the sulfoxides were formed by enantioselective oxidation of the sulfides rather than by enantioselective oxidation of racemic sulfoxides, since the yield of sulfoxides was greater than 50% in five of the ten oxidations reported (see also Reference 34). 

This chapter, however, does not deal with above-mentioned reactions of sulfoxides. Rather it is limited to asymmetric synthesis using a-sulfinyl carbanions and -unsaturated sulfoxides, specifically in which the stereogenic sulfoxide sulfur atom is enantiomerically pure. Therefore reactions of racemic sulfoxides are for the most part excluded from this review. For more general discussions, the reader is referred to other chapters in this volume and to other reviews on the chemistry of sulfoxides. Especially useful are the reviews by Johnson and Sharp and by Mislow in the late 1960s and by Oae and by Nudelman as well as a book by Block . A review by Cinquini, Cozzi and Montanari" through mid-1983 summarizes the chemistry and stereochemistry of optically active sulfoxides. This chapter emphasizes results reported from 1984 through mid-1986. 

The rearrangement of allylic sulfoxides to allylic sulfenates was first studied in connection with the mechanism of racemization of allyl aryl sulfoxides.272 Although the allyl sulfoxide structure is strongly favored at equilibrium, rearrangement through the achiral allyl sulfenate provides a low-energy pathway for racemization. 

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