Sulfimide catalysts

The synthesis of sulfoximides and sulfimides has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to the potential utility of these compounds as efficient auxiliaries and chiral ligands in asymmetric synthesis (reviews [86-88]). Transition metal-catalyzed nitrene transfer to sulfoxides and sulfides is an efficient and straightforward way to synthesize sulfoximides and sulfimides, respectively. Bach and coworkers reported the first iron-catalyzed imination of sulfur compounds with FeCl2 as catalyst and B0CN3 as nitrene source. Various sulfoxides and sulfides were... 

Uemura and co-workers (91) demonstrated that copper catalysts effectively transfer nitrenoid groups to sulfides generating chiral sulfimides. A complex obtained from CuOTf and 55d catalyzes nitrenoid transfer to prochiral sulfides to afford products such as 139 in moderate to poor enantioselectivities (<71% ee, Eq. 78). Nitrenoid transfer occurs selectively to the sulfur atom of allylic sulfides generating allylic sulfenamide (140) in moderate selectivity, after [2,3] sigmatropic rearrangement of the initial sulfimide 141, Eq. 79. 

Thiazine 280 can be prepared in low yield by the sulfimidation of benzo[/ ]thiophene 281 with chloramine-T 282 in the presence of a Cu-catalyst (Equation 39) <2003CC1736>. 

The traditional synthesis of cyclic sulfimidates from /3-aminoalcohols and SOCl2 in the presence of amine as a base has been developed further to the preparation of the enantiopure monocyclic as well fused sulfimidates (Schemes 26 and 27). 1,2,3-Oxathiazolidine mono-.Y-oxides are readily oxidized to corresponding sulfamidates by RuCR and NalCb, and the synthesis of sulfamidates can be performed in a one-pot procedure from -aminoalcohols without isolation of intermediate sulfimidates (Equation 37). The reaction of sulfamate esters 145 with PhI(OAc)2 and various catalysts proved to be a reliable method for the enantioselective preparation of cyclic sulfamidates 146 (Equation 35). 

In summary, we have presented a variety of metal-based catalysts which are able to mediate the asymmetric oxidations of sulfides to the corresponding sulfoxides and sulfimides. Although very different approaches relying on distinct metal complexes are known, there is still a demand for an appropriate system which would allow the transformation of any sulfide to occur with high enantioselec-tivity. Especially the rational design of chiral complexes able to selectively oxidize substrates, in particular, those compounds other than aryl methyl sulfides is still a major challenge. 

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