Sulfoxides s.a. Sulfinyl

We noted earlier that the sulfinyl group of a thiolsulfinate is believed to have a basicity somewhat less than that of a sulfoxide but somewhat greater than that of a sulfinate ester (Engberts and Zuidema, 1970).+Thus, in an acid solution a thiosulfinate will be protonated to some extent to RS(OH)SR. A whole series of reactions is known that are initiated by attack of a nucleophile on the dico-ordinate sulfur of RS(OH)SR with cleavage of the S—S bond and displacement of RSOH. 

More recently the stereoselectivity of the addition of sulfinyl anions to carbonyl groups was improved by introducing a sulfide group in the a-position30,31. The sulfoxide ( + )-(S)-(4-methylphcnylsulfinyl)(4-methylphenylthio)metliane was added to benzaldehyde to give the adduct 1 as a mixture of three diastereomers [(S5,15,27 )/(SS,17 ,2/J)/(S5,15,25) 55 30 15] which could be transformed into the corresponding a-methoxyaldehydc 4 in 67% yield with 70 % ee. The same reaction, when applied to phenylacetaldehyde, led to a product in 43 % yield with lower ee (46%). 

No stereoselectivity was observed in the formation of a 1 1 diastereomeric mixture of 2-hydroxy-2-phenylethyl p-tolyl sulfoxide 145 from treatment of (R)-methyl p-tolyl sulfoxide 144 with lithium diethylamide . However, a considerable stereoselectivity was observed in the reaction of this carbanion with unsymmetrical, especially aromatic, ketones The carbanion derived from (R)-144 was found to add to N-benzylideneaniline stereoselectivity, affording only one diastereomer, i.e. (Rs,SJ-( + )-iV-phenyl-2-amino-2-phenyl p-tolyl sulfoxide, which upon treatment with Raney Ni afforded the corresponding optically pure amine . The reaction of the lithio-derivative of (-t-)-(S)-p-tolyl p-tolylthiomethyl sulfoxide 146 with benzaldehyde gave a mixture of 3 out of 4 possible isomers, i.e. (IS, 2S, 3R)-, (IS, 2R, 3R)- and (IS, 2S, 3S)-147 in a ratio of 55 30 15. Methylation of the diastereomeric mixture, reduction of the sulfinyl group and further hydrolysis gave (—)-(R)-2-methoxy-2-phenylacetaldehyde 148 in 70% e.e. This addition is considered to proceed through a six-membered cyclic transition state, formed by chelation with lithium, as shown below . ... 

The Michael addition of nucleophiles to a, -unsaturated sulfoxides creates initially a-sulfinyl carbanions by nucleophilic attack on the /S-carbon atom. Russell and Becker found that treatment of a mixture of diphenylmethane and anisaldehyde with potassium t-butoxide in DMSO gave at first the condensation product 170, which upon Michael addition afforded the final product 171. 

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