Sulphones sulphide oxidation

Sulphur Compounds.—Mercaptans form salts by the replacement of one hydrogen atom by metals. Sulphides do not form salts they yield sulphoxides and sulphones on oxidation. Sulphates of amines give a precipitate of barium sulphate with barium chloride. The alkyl sulphates yield inorganic sulphates on hydrolysis. The sulphonic acids are not hydrolyzed by bases. 

Preparation of Sulphones.—Routine oxidation methods give sulphones, starting from sulphides and sulphoxides, and, again, a warning has appeared about the use of H2O2 in acetone which led to a delayed explosion during an attempt to oxidize a sulphur heterocycle to the sulphone. ... 

Poly(ethylene terephtlhalate) Phenol-formaldehyde Polyimide Polyisobutylene Poly(methyl methacrylate), acrylic Poly-4-methylpentene-1 Polyoxymethylene polyformaldehyde, acetal Polypropylene Polyphenylene ether Polyphenylene oxide Poly(phenylene sulphide) Poly(phenylene sulphone) Polystyrene Polysulfone Polytetrafluoroethylene Polyurethane Poly(vinyl acetate) Poly(vinyl alcohol) Poly(vinyl butyral) Poly(vinyl chloride) Poly(vinylidene chloride) Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Poly(vinyl formal) Polyvinylcarbazole Styrene Acrylonitrile Styrene butadiene rubber Styrene-butadiene-styrene Urea-formaldehyde Unsaturated polyester... 

Popova and colleagues47 carried out TLC of oxidation products of 4,4 -dinitrodiphenyl sulphide (the sulphoxide and sulphone) on silica gel + a fluorescent indicator, using hexane-acetone-benzene-methanol(60 36 10 l) as solvent mixture. Morris130 performed GLC and TLC of dimethyl sulphoxide. For the latter, he applied a 6% solution of the sample in methanol to silica gel and developed with methanol-ammonia solution(200 3), visualizing with 2% aqueous Co11 thiocyanate-methanol(2 1). HPLC separations of chiral mixtures of sulphoxides have been carried out. Thus Pirkle and coworkers131-132 reported separations of alkyl 2,4-dinitrophenyl sulphoxides and some others on a silica-gel (Porosil)-bonded chiral fluoroalcoholic stationary phase, with the structure ... 

A detailed study revealed that sulphides may react with nitric acid to give sulphoxides, sulphones and their nitro derivatives54. However, under suitable conditions the nitric acid oxidation of sulphides leads to a selective formation of sulphoxides. This is probably due to the formation of a sulphonium salt 30 which is resistant to further oxidation50 (equation 12). 

Olah and coworkers56 found that treatment of dialkyl, arylalkyl and diaryl sulphides with nitronium hexafluorophosphate (or tetrafluoroborate) 32 at —78° in methylene chloride resulted in the formation of sulphoxides in moderate to high yields (Table 3). In the oxidation of diphenyl sulphide which affords diphenyl sulphoxide in 95% yield, small amounts of the ring nitration products (o- and p-nitrophenyl phenyl sulphides) were formed. However, diphenyl sulphone and nitrophenyl phenyl sulphoxide were not detected among the reaction products. 

Chromic acid oxidation of sulphides to sulphoxides was reported in 1926124. However, this oxidation procedure is not selective and sulphone formation was observed125. When pyridine was used as a solvent the sulphone formation was strongly reduced126. 

The well-known fact that enantiomers exhibit different reactivity towards chiral reagents has been used to obtain optically active sulphoxides in a process which is called kinetic resolution. Kinetic resolution of sulphoxides usually involves either oxidation to the corresponding sulphones or reduction to sulphides by means of proper chiral oxidizing or reducing agents. 

Carbonyl oxides (formed by the reaction of diazo compounds with singlet oxygen) may also be used to oxidize sulphoxides74. The corresponding sulphone is formed in reasonable yields and the reaction may be carried out in the presence of the sulphide functionality. The reaction proceeds as shown in equation (21) and involves initial nucleophilic attack by the carbonyl oxide on the sulphoxide sulphur atom followed by the facile departure of the carbonyl compound yielding the required sulphone. 

There are many transition metal ion oxidants used in organic chemistry for the interconversion of functional groups. Those which have been used for the preparation of sulphones from sulphoxides will be discussed below. It is very interesting to note that this type of oxidant often reacts more rapidly with sulphoxides than with sulphides and so sulphoxides may be selectively oxidized with transition metal ion oxidants in the presence of sulphides. This is in direct contrast to the oxidation of sulphides and sulphoxides with peracids and periodate, for example, where the rate of reaction of the sulphide is more than 100 times that for the corresponding sulphoxide. 

Sulphones occur relatively rarely as natural products. Thus there is no reported specific enzymatic system for the formation of sulphones. However, there are several well-understood pathways for the oxidation of sulphides to sulphoxides and these do lead to sulphones in some cases. 

The photolysis of dimethyl sulphoxide (at 253.7 nm) in a wide range of solvents has been studied in detail176. Three primary reactions occur, namely (i) fragmentation into methyl radicals and methanesulphinyl radicals, equation (60), (ii) disproportionation into dimethyl sulphone and dimethyl sulphide, equation (61) and (iii) deactivation of the excited state to ground state dimethyl sulphoxide. All chemical processes occur through the singlet state. Further chemical reactions of the initial photochemical products produce species that have been oxidized relative to dimethyl sulphoxide. 

The reactions described in this section are used for the quantitative analysis of sulphones. Extreme, forcing, oxidizing conditions are used for these procedures. Sulphox-ides and sulphides may also be analysed in the same way and so the discussion also applies to these types of compounds. 

In contrast, sulphoxides appear to possess a more classical behaviour in electrochemistry, due to their intermediate oxidation state which allows, in most of the cases, their reduction to sulphides but also their oxidation to sulphones with no cleavage process. Moreover, the increase of the sulphur atom basicity may also produce catalytic hydrogen evolution in acidic solution. 

Edwards two-parameter equation 549 Electrochemical oxidation of sulphides 76, 252, 253 of sulphoxides 968, 987, 1043 Electrochemical reduction of sulphones 962, 963, 1002-1041 of sulphoxides 933, 1041, 1042 Electronegativity, of the sulphur atom 584 Electronic effects 390, 484-535 Electron scavengers 892, 896 Electron spin resonance spectroscopy 874, 890-895, 1050-1055, 1082, 1083, 1090-1093... 

---