Sulfoxides Pummerer reactions, acetic anhydride

First, the normal Pummerer reaction of syn- and anti-sulfoxides with hot acetic anhydride was examined. It was found that both gave the same 80 20 ratio of... 

A Pummerer-initiated cascade reaction has also been used as a method for generating isomiinchnones for further use in cycloaddition chemistry. For example, treatment of sulfoxide 23 with acetic anhydride first resulted in the formation of a reactive thionium ion that reacted with the distal amide carbonyl group to produce isomunchnone 24 (Scheme 6) (99JOC2038). Exposure of 24 to a dipolarophile, such as iV-phenylmaleimide, resulted in 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to give 25 as a single diastereomer in 85% yield. 

The Pummerer rearrangement was reported by Rudolf Pummerer in 1909 when he published a paper in Chemische Berichte. Earlier in the same year, Smythe had reported the reaction of dibenzyl sulfoxide 3 with acetic anhydride and hydrochloric acid to give benzaldehyde 4 and thioacetal 5, among other products. Smythe was apparently unable to explain the product distribution, which was then left to Pummerer do so in his much-cited paper later that year. Pummerer published the reaction of sulfinyl acetic acid 6 with hydrochloric acid to give glyoxylic acid 7. The formal oxidation of the... 

Pummerer wrote only one further paper on this chemistry, in 1910. The reaction of sulfoxide 11 with acetic anhydride was shown to afford sulfide 12 in what is now recognised as the classical Pummerer rearrangement. From these two reports, the scope of the Pummerer rearrangement has been investigated by many prominent groups who have spent much time and effort in extending the utility of this illustrious reaction. This is perhaps best exemplified by the considerable number of reviews on the Pummerer rearrangement. " ... 

Pummerer Reaction. In 1910, Pummerer reported that sulfoxides react with acetic anhydride to give 2-acetoxy sulfides (eq 21). The sulfoxide must have one a-hydrogen. Alternative reaction conditions include using trifluoroacetic anhydride and acetic anhydride. 

Due to their thermal instability, this method cannot be applied to the preparation of benzo-thiepins. Although the ft-oxo sulfoxide moiety in precursors such as 5-methoxy-4-phenyl-l-benzothiepin-3(2/7)-one 1-oxide makes them candidates for a Pummerer reaction, treatment with acetic anhydride and triethylamine at - 30 C results in preferential enol acetylation to afford the corresponding 1-benzothiepin 1-oxide.14... 

Whereas conversion of sulfoxides to the corresponding a-acyloxysulfides by acid anhydrides, for example acetic anhydride, the Pummerer reaction [1], has been known for quite a time, the conversion of sulfoxides with silylating reagents via the unstable intermediate O-silyl compounds to a-silyloxysulfides, the Sila-Pummerer reaction is a relatively new reaction, which has recently been reviewed [1—4-]. 

The Pummerer reaction of conformationally rigid 4-aryl-substituted thiane oxides with acetic anhydride was either stereoselective or stereospecific, and the rearrangement is mainly intermolecular, while the rate-determining step appears to be the E2 1,2-elimination of acetic acid from the acetoxysulfonium intermediates formed in the initial acetylation of the sulfoxide. The thermodynamically controlled product is the axial acetoxy isomer, while the kinetically controlled product is the equatorial isomer that is preferentially formed due to the facile access of the acetate to the equatorial position . The overall mechanism is illustrated in equation 129. 

The differing nucleophilicity of acetate and trifluoroacetate anion determined the manner in which naphtho[l,8-/yt]-l,5-dithiocinc sulfoxide 127 rearranged on treatment with acetic and trifluoroacetic anhydrides. In both cases, the reaction proceeded through formation of a disulfonium dication 128, but the final products were different. When acetic anhydride was used, the reaction afforded the corresponding a-acetylsulfide 130, a normal product of the Pummerer rearrangement, while trifluoroacetic anhydride caused isomerization with formation of dithioacetal 132 (see Scheme 16) <1995HAC559>. 

A stereoselective Pummerer reaction was first observed with the diastereomeric cyclic sulfoxides 269. It was found (299) that when the CIS- or tra 5-sulfoxides 269 are heated for several hours with acetic anhydride, the corresponding cis- or fraws-acetoxysulfides 270 are formed with a stereospecificity exceeding 85%. 

Recently, new examples of asymmetric induction in the Pummerer reaction of chiral sulfoxides have been described. Oae and Numata (301) reported that the optically active a-cyanomethyl p-tolyl sulfoxide 275 undergoes a typical Pummerer rearrangement upon heating with excess of acetic anhydride at 120°C, to give the optically active a-acetoxy sulfide 276. The optical purity at the chiral a-carbon center in 276, determined by means of H- NMR spectroscopy using a chiral shift reagent, was 29.8%. 

The Pummerer reaction of sulfinyl compounds involves the formation of an a-functionalized sulfide [244, 245] from a sulfoxide. Acetic anhydride is commonly used as the electrophile, which adds to the sulfoxide to yield a sulfonium salt, and the rearrangement occurs through successive formations of an ylide (rate-determining step) and an alkylidene sulfonium, trapped by a nucleophile, or stabilized by a proton loss with formation of a vinyl sulfide. 

Vinylic sulfoxides such as 1 react readily with electrophiles to give highly reactive species, and the overall reactions have been likened to "generation" of the synthon 2. Treatment of 1 with TFAA, for example, results in what is referred to as an "additive Pummerer reaction", and gives the diester 3. Reaction of 1 with triflic anhydride and sodium acetate in acetic anhydride, by contrast, gives an 85% yield of the protected aldehyde 4. 

Pummerer rearrangement of this sulfoxide in acetic anhydride under reflux furnished 3,4-dihydrothiepin 45. The trithiepine 46 was obtained upon oxidation and Pummerer rearrangement of 3,4-dihydrothiepine. Alternatively, 3,4-dihydrothiepine was also obtained by the reaction of 1,2,5-trithiepine with A-chlorosuccinimide, followed by treatment with EtjN <1997JOC2432>. 

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). ... 

The Pummerer reaction of optically active R)- +)-a-(p-tolylsulfinyl)-A/,Al-dimethylacetamide with Acetic Anhydride in the presence of 1,3-Dicyclohexylcarbodiimide is highly stereoselective, affording the corresponding a-acetoxy sulfide in moderate yield but with nearly 70% ee (eq 2). The recovered starting sulfoxide is obtained in 63% yield. 

The previous reaction describes the synthesis of a novel class of heterocycles by the name of [l,2,3]thiadiazolo[4,5- /]-pyrimidines. Visibly, a redox process is involved, whereby the initial hydrazine derivative becomes an R-N=N-R system and, at the same time, the sulfur atom in thionyl chloride is converted to an azo-sulfide. The transfer of oxidaton level from sulfur—as sulfoxide—to the neighboring atom is a well documented process in sulfur chemistry that is called the Pummerer rearrangement. In essence, it involves the treatment of sulfoxides with an electrophile such as acetic anhydride to yield an a-acetoxy sulfide, according to the following sequence (see Scheme 26.1) ... 

In this class of Pummerer reactions subsequent formation of the a-acyloxy sulflde involves, in the majority of instances, an intermolecular acyloxy migration. The reaction of p-tolyl benzyl sulfoxide with acetic anhydride is an exception. However, even in this case no asymmetric induction is observed. ... 

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