Sulfoxides, enantiomeric purity/absolute

Enantiomerically pure 3-tolyl-2-sulfinyl-2-cyclopentenone 37 undergoes smooth, mild and diastereoselective conjugate hydride addition with lithium tri(sec-butyl)borohydride to afford ultimately 3-tolylcyclopentanone 38 in 93% enantiomeric purity (equation 35)78. The absolute stereochemistry of product 38 is consistent with a chelated intermediate directing hydride addition from that diastereoface containing the sulfoxide lone pair. 

Three excellent reviews cover this subject through the early 1980s . The second review summarizes through 1981 the methods used for determining the enantiomeric purity and the absolute configuration of sulfoxides, and the third review summarizes this area through 1983. ... 

NMR spectroscopy was found to be a valuable technique for differentiation between the enantiomers of optically active compounds. The principles of the methods used to distinguish between enantiomers by means of NMR have been developed and reviewed by Mis-low and Raban (217). The best results from the point of view of the determination of optical purity and absolute configuration of chiral sulfur compounds, especially of sulfinyl compounds, have been obtained with the help of chiral solvents (218). Pirkle (86) was the first to demonstrate that enantiomeric sulfoxides have nonidentical NMR spectra when dissolved in chiral alcohols having the following general formula ... 

---