Sulfoxide, dimethyl Pummerer rearrangement

Heating of the sulfoxide 31 causes a Pummerer rearrangement generating the ylide 32, which could be trapped with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate (DMAD) giving the dihydrothiophene derivative 33 <06HC648>. 

Among other electrophilic reagents ctq>able of twinging about the Pummerer rearrangement are halides of organic and inorganic acids. As these halides transform sulfoxides into a-chlorosulfides they complement the sulfide chlorination route to these compounds. Thionyl chloride reacts readily with sulfoxides and 3-keto sulfoxides methyl phenyl sulfoxide furnishes chloromethyl phenyl sulfide (equation 37). Benzoyl chloride and acetyl chloride behave similarly. d yanuric chloii is transformed into cyanuric acid by dimethyl sulfoxide, which in turn is transformed into methyl chloromethyl sulfide (equation 3g).54,S5... 

In comparison to some of the other activation methods however, the dimethyl sulfoxide-acetic anhydride procedure has certain disadvantages. The method often requires the use of long reaction times (1 24 h), which can result in many side reactions, especially with sensitive substrates. Notable in this respect is that it is not uncommon for this procedure to result in the formation of substantial yields of the thiomethyl ethers obtained from the Pummerer rearrangement product as described above. In fact upon attempted oxidation of cholesterol with this system, the major product obtained was the corresponding (methylthio)methyl ether. Acetates may also be formed if the alcohol is unhindered. For example the sugar derivative (9) reacts under these conditions to form an enol acetate (derived from the requir carbonyl compound) in 40% yield contaminated with 30% of the acetate (10 equation S). ... 

Undoubtedly the most popular variation of these oxidations is the use of oxalyl chloride to activate the dimethyl sulfoxide, which is commonly referred to as the Swem oxidation. The advantages of the method are the mild conditions the ease of work-up, due to two of the main by-products being carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide the low yields, if any, of Pummerer rearrangement products and the fact... 

As with trifluoroacetic anhydride, activation of dimethyl sulfoxide with thionyl chloride must be carried out at low temperatures as the reaction is highly exothenmic. Besides the higher yields, a further advantage of thionyl chloride to activate dimethyl sulfoxide over anhydrides is the lack of Pummerer rearrangement products or of esters formed as by-products (as long as Ae reactions are carried out below -60 C). This is amply demonstrated by the oxidation of (-)-bomeol which proceeds in an excellent 99% yield (equation 12). ... 

On warming above -30 C the mixture clears and a Pummerer rearrangement occurs to form (methyl-thio)methyl trifluoracetate (13). However the extent of this by-product formation is minimized at Ae lower temperature, and the reaction with alcohols gives high yields of carbonyl products over short reaction times. This makes trifluoroacetic anhydride one of the better activators for dimethyl sulfoxide oxidations. 

Microflow systems serve as effective environments to perform various oxidation reactions using chemical reagents. The oxidation using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), which is known as Moffatt-Swern type oxidation, is one of the most versatile and reliable methods for the oxidation of alcohols into carbonyl compounds in laboratory synthesis [1, 2]. However, it is well known that activation of DMSO leads to an inevitable side-reaction, Pummerer rearrangement, at temperatures above — 30°C (Scheme 7.1). Therefore, the reaction is usually carried out at low temperatures (—50 °C or below), where such a side-reaction is very slow [3, 4]. However, the requirement for such low temperatures causes severe limitations in the industrial use of this highly useful reaction. The use of microflow systems solves the problem. For example, the oxidation of cyclohexanol can be accomplished using a microflow... 

---