Sulfonium ylides formation reaction

The reaction of carbenes or carbenoids with compounds containing S—S bonds is likely to begin with sulfonium ylide formation subsequent [1,2] rearrangement then produces a formal insertion product of the carbene moiety into the S—S bond152 b). 

The major reaction pathways for sulfonium ylide formation generated from a metal carbene complex and sulfide are [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement and [l,2]-shift, similar to those of the oxonium ylide formation. 

Fig. 9.1. Representative phosphonium, sulfonium, and sulfoxonium ylides— formation reactions and valence bond formulas.

The sequence including intramolecular sulfonium ylide formation from the reaction of a Rh(II) carbenoid with a divalent S atom and the rearrangement of the ylide was employed in the preparation of lactones 741 (93TL7627) and 742 (91TL6159). 

In an attempt to prepare sulfonium-ylide polymer, Tani-moto and coworkers [57,58] carried out the reaction of a sulfonium salt polymer with benzaldehyde in the presence of a base and obtained styrene oxide. The reaction was considered to process via a ylide polymer formation (Scheme 24), which may be unstable and has not been isolated. 

There are four main factors that affect the enantioselectivity of sulfur ylide-mediated reactions i) the lone-pair selectivity of the sulfonium salt formation, ii) the conformation of the resulting ylide, iii) the face selectivity of the ylide, and iv) betaine reversibility. 

Interaction of an electrophilic carbene or carbenoid with R—S—R compounds often results in the formation of sulfonium ylides. If the carbene substituents are suited to effectively stabilize a negative charge, these ylides are likely to be isolable otherwiese, their intermediary occurence may become evident from products of further transformation. Ando 152 b) has given an informative review on sulfonium ylide chemistry, including their formation by photochemical or copper-catalyzed decomposition of diazocarbonyl compounds. More recent examples, including the generation and reactions of ylides obtained by metal-catalyzed decomposition of diazo compounds in the presence of thiophenes (Sect. 4.2), allyl sulfides and allyl dithioketals (Sect. 2.3.4) have already been presented. 

The intramolecular addition of acylcarbene complexes to alkynes is a general method for the generation of electrophilic vinylcarbene complexes. These reactive intermediates can undergo inter- or intramolecular cyclopropanation reactions [1066 -1068], C-H bond insertions [1061,1068-1070], sulfonium and oxonium ylide formation [1071], carbonyl ylide formation [1067,1069,1071], carbene dimerization [1066], and other reactions characteristic of electrophilic carbene complexes. 

If acceptor-substituted carbene complexes are generated in the presence of thioethers, ylide formation is generally the mostly favored process. The resulting sulfonium ylides are often sufficiently stable to be isolated [975,1307-1309]. Typical reactions of sulfonium ylides include 1,2-alkyl migration, leading to products of... 

Complexation of sodium to the persulfoxide A (Fig. 13B) appears to inhibit intramolecular hydrogen abstraction to form the hydroperoxy sulfonium ylide (B in Fig. 13A) and allows a direct reaction of 12 with the sodium-complexed persulfoxide, (A in Fig. 13B) to compete. Consistent with this suggestion is the observation that the formation of 13CHO that emanates from the hydroperoxy sulfonium ylide by Pummerer rearrangement and subsequent cleavage is completely suppressed during photo-oxidations of thiolane, 13, in NaMBY ... 

Highly Lewis basic and nucleophilic functional groups are not compatible with zinc carbenoids. The methylation or ylide formation of heteroatoms is one of the most important side reactions of these reagents. For example, amines, thioethers and phosphines readily react with the zinc reagents to generate ammonium salts", sulfonium" and phosphonium ylides" ". Terminal alkynes generally lead to a large number of by-products". ... 

Reactions of carbocyclic P-keto esters, sulfonium ylides and enamines with activated alkynes such as DMAD are known to result in formation of (n + 2) ring expanded products. In a study of the analogous reactions of carbocyclic p-keto phosphonates, it was found that in the cases of the simple cyclic P-keto phosphonates 1, ring expansion occurred to give 2 in reasonable yield. Extension of the method to the tetralone 3, however, led to formation of two products, the "expected" (n + 2) ring expansion product analogous to 2 (37%), and the lactone 4 (29%). 

Only a limited number of examples have been reported. The reactivity of sulfonium ylide 98a, prepared by the reaction of thiepine 96 and dimethyl diazomalonate (Section 13.03.6.1), was examined <20060BC2218>. The reactivity of the stabilized sulfonium ylide 98a was restricted to the highly reactive Michael acceptor, tetracya-noethylene 152 (the ylide failed to react with benzaldehyde or dicyanoethylene). Reaction of ylide 98a with tetracyanoethylene 152 led to the consumption of the ylide 98a (Equation 22). Thiepine 96 was produced in the reaction and the formation of cyclopropane 153 was suggested. 

Irrespective of whether the initially formed sulfonium ion B or the subsequently formed sulfonium ion D reacts with the alcohol, the alcohol is taken up by such a sulfonium ion with formation of sulfuranes A (first case) or C (second case). Any of these sulfuranes would yield the sulfonium salt E after dissociation. Once this sulfonium salt has formed, five equivalents ofNEtj are added to the reaction mixture, which then is allowed to warm up from -60 to -45°C. Under these conditions, the sulfonium salt E is deprotonated to give the sulfonium ylide F. This ylide undergoes a /3-elimination via a cyclic transition state to form the desired carbonyl compound and dimethyl sulfide as a side-product. 

The reaction requires the addition of base (conunonly triethylamine) and results in the formation of an ylide (2 Scheme 3), which collapses intramolecularly to the carbonyl compound. - Further siqiportive evidence for ylide formation lies in the observation that sulfonium salts lacking a hydrogen a to the sulfur do not break down to form the carbonyl compound." ... 

Unstabilized sulfonium ylides and stabilized sulfoxonium ylides show different reactions with a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds the former give epoxides and the latter give cyclopropanes. The epoxide formation (i.e. 1,2-addition) is kinetically favourable while cyclopropane formation (i.e. 1,4-addition, Michael addition) is energetically favourable. 

Sulfonium salts react in several ways. They may behave as a leaving group, undergoing substitution by a nucleophile or fragmenting with the formation of an alkene. However, the most important reaction of sulfonium salts involves the formation of an ylide in the presence of a base. The carbanion of this sulfur ylide is stabilized by the adjacent positively charged sulfonium ion. The reaction of the carbanion with a carbonyl group parallels that of a phosphonium ylide in the Wittig reaction. However, the decomposition of the intermediate dipolar species is different and leads to the formation of an epoxide (oxirane) rather than an alkene. 

The formation of free carbene 425 was postulated in the reaction of sulfides 426 with methyllithium. It is stabilized via cyclization into a four-membered sulfonium ylide 427, followed by rearrangement with ring expansion into thiabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane 428, which is isolated as a mixture of endo (72%) and exo (28%) isomers in an overall yield of 17-38%. However, simultaneous occurrence of side processes makes this reaction synthetically inappropriate [82ACS(B)593],... 

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