Thiirene oxides

Heterocyclics of all sizes, as long as they are unsaturated, can serve as dipolarophiles and add to external 1,3-dipoles. Examples involving small rings are not numerous. Thiirene oxides add 1,3-dipoles, such as di azomethane, with subsequent loss of the sulfur moiety (Section 5.06.3.8). As one would expect, unsaturated large heterocyclics readily provide the two-atom component for 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions. Examples are found in the monograph chapters, such as those on azepines and thiepines (Sections 5.16.3.8.1 and 5.17.2.4.4). 

The vertical ionization potentials from the photoelectron spectra of some thiirane and thiirene derivatives are given in Table 3. A Walsh localized scheme of bonding is generally preferred. There is a strong hyperconjugative interaction in thiirene 1,1-dioxides between the occupied C=C tt-MO and the occupied SO2 pure sulfur d-AO. Thiirene oxides are suggested to be less aromatic than cyclopropenones and tropone. 

The (formal) Michael addition of nucleophiles to thiirene oxides and... 

The first substituted thiirene dioxides21 and thiirene oxides22 (e.g. 4 x = 2 and x = 1, respectively) were synthesized and characterized by Carpino and coworkers, while the parent thiirene oxide and dioxide are not known to date. However, the successful syntheses of the substituted unsaturated systems 4 opened the door to an extensive research involving the theoretical and experimental aspects of this class of intriguing compounds2, particularly as far as the unique role and characteristics of their sulfone and sulfoxide groups are concerned. 

The geometric parameters of the three-membered ring sulfones and sulfoxides have been determined via X-ray diffraction techniques and gas-phase microwave spectroscopy. The accumulated data for some selected thiirane and thiirene oxides and dioxides (16-19) as well as for the corresponding thiirane (20) and the acyclic dimethyl sulfone (for the sake of comparison) are given in Table 3, together with the calculated values. 

A unique characteristic feature of the cyclic three-membered ring sulfones and sulfoxides is the dramatic increase in the length of the carbon-carbon single bonds and the carbon-carbon double bonds in the series of thiirane-thiirane oxide-thiirane dioxide (20a -> 16a -> 17a), and thiirene-thiirene oxide-thiirene dioxide (21 -> 18a -> 19b). 

Similar considerations apply to the thiirene oxide system (18), since in this case too the sulfur s 3d-orbitals have the potential of interacting with the 2p-orbitals of both the adjacent carbon and oxygen atoms. Such an interaction should facilitate some kind of conjugation of the carbon-carbon double-bond -electrons with the formally unoccupied 3d-orbitals, which in turn would give rise to Hiickel-type stabilization associated with cyclic array of 4n + 2 (n = 0) 7t-electrons. 

Based on experimental results and complementary calculations, an out-of-plane n-delocalization is suggested for thiirene dioxides39. As far as the thiirene oxide is concerned, theoretical calculations predict possible spiroconjugative-type53 interaction between the n c—c orbital of the ring and the jr-orbitals of the SO (which leads to aromatic stabilization and a n charge transfer backward from the SO to the C=C). There exists, however, a rather strong destabilization effect, due to the jr so(d )-orbital. 

The thiirene oxide system is of particular interest due to it being simultaneously both a potentially nonbenzenoid aromatic (4n + 2)n and antiaromatic 4nn Hiickel system. 

Since it is clear that the presence of an unshared pair of electrons on the sulfur of the sulfoxide group leads to no special instability in the case of the known thiirene oxides (i.e., 18a, 28a,b and the first alkyl-substituted thiirene oxide 30 recently synthesized60), the reduced antiaromatic properties of the thiirene oxides relative to that of thiirenes have been manifested experimentally. As far as the possibility of electron-attracting conjugative stabilization involving the sulfur atom in thiirene oxides is concerned, the experimental evidence accumulated so far is not decisive. Thus, the chemical shift of the vinylic carbon of... 

Similarly, a common feature in the mass spectrum of thiirene oxides is the high abundance of the substituted acetylene ion (e.g. [PhC CPh]7) formed by elimination of sulfur monoxide. In fact, this ion constitutes the base peak in the spectrum of 18a whereas the molecular ion has a rather insignificant intensity (0.25% I of M+)91. 

Similarly, methane Cl spectrum of 18a was found to be dominated by the (C6H5C= CC6H5 + H)+ ion. A distinct molecular ion species at m/e value corresponding to (M + H)+ was observed in the methane mass spectra of this thiirene oxide (26% 2 40). Furthermore, the relative intensity of the (M +H)+ peak of 18a was shown to increase substantially in the isobutane and dimethyl amine Cl mass spectra91. 

The following features associated with the sulfoxide and sulfone functional groups in thiirane and thiirene oxides and dioxides are to be discussed ... 

It is highly probable that the lesser stability of thiirene dioxides compared with that of the thiirene oxides simply reflects the more facile extrusion of sulfur dioxide relative to that of sulfur monoxide. In fact, the same effect is probably operative in the case of the cis- and trans-diphenylthiirane oxides (16g,h)110 compared with cis- and trans-diphenylthiirane dioxides (17d,e)99 the former were found to be more stable toward thermal decomposition than the latter. 

The issue of the acidity of a-hydrogens in thiirene oxides and dioxides is dealt with only in the dioxide series, since neither the parent, nor any mono-substituted thiirene oxide, is known to date. Thus the study of the reaction of 2-methylthiirene dioxide (19c) with aqueous sodium hydroxide revealed that the hydroxide ion is presumably diverted from attack at the sulfony 1 group (which is the usual pattern for hydroxide ion attack on thiirene dioxides) by the pronounced acidity of the vinyl proton of this compound113 (see equation 14). 

To summarize under favorable conditions the acidity of a-hydrogens facilitates the generation of a-sulfoxy and a-sulfonyl carbanions in thiirane and thiirene oxides and dioxides as in acyclic sulfoxides and sulfones. However, the particular structural constraints of three-membered ring systems may lead not only to different chemical consequences following the formation of the carbanions, but may also provide alternative pathways not available in the case of the acyclic counterparts for hydrogen abstraction in the reaction of bases. 

In contrast to thiirane oxides, the electrophilic oxidation of thiirene oxides to thiirene dioxides is feasible, probably because both the starting material and the end product can survive the reaction conditions (equation 21). 

To what extent the above suggests that the sulfoxide sulfur of thiirene oxides is more nucleophilic than that of thiirane oxides remains an open question. 

Theoretical considerations (previously discussed in Section III.B.3) predict the oxygen moiety in the sulfoxide function of thiirene oxides to be relatively nonreactive12, that is, less nucleophilic than the sulfoxy oxygen of either thiirane oxides or ordinary acyclic sulfoxides. 

In conclusion, any electrophilic attack on the sulfoxide function in thiirene oxides must overcome a substantial energy barrier. Indeed, many oxidative reagents that proved to react smoothly with acyclic sulfoxides131 left the thiirene oxides intact under comparable reaction conditions. Thus, there is a good correlation between theoretical predictions and experimental results in this case2,12. 

An illustrative example of the Michael reaction is that of the thiirene dioxide 19b with either hydroxylamine or hydrazine to give desoxybenzoin oxime (87) and desoxybenzoin azine (88), respectively, in good yields6 (see equation 29). The results were interpreted in terms of an initial nucleophilic addition to the a, j8-unsaturated sulfone system, followed by loss of sulfur dioxide and tautomerization. Interestingly, the treatment of the corresponding thiirene oxide (18a) with hydroxylamine also afforded 86 (as well as the dioxime of benzoin), albeit in a lower yield, but apparently via the same mechanistic pathway6. 

Finally, obtaining olefin 93 from the reaction of thiirene oxide 18a with two equivalents of phenylmagnesium bromide may be a consequence of the initial nucleophilic Michael-type addition of the latter across the carbon carbon double bond of the cyclic sulfone22 (see equation 31). 

Thus, like a, /1-unsaturated ketones and sulfones, both thiirene dioxides and thiirene oxides are preferentially attacked by the less basic nucleophiles on the vinylic carbon atom2. This would lead to formally 1,4 Michael-type adducts and/or other products resulting from further transformations following the initial formation of the a-sulfonyl and a-sulfoxy carbanions. 

Unexpectedly, neither direct complexation nor the deoxygenated complexes 95 or 96136,137 were observed in the reaction of diphenylthiirene oxide (18a) with iron nonacarbonyl. Instead, the red organosulfur-iron complex 97138 was isolated12, which required the cleavage of three carbon-sulfur bonds in the thiirene oxide system (see equation 33). The mechanism of the formation of 97 from 18a is as yet a matter of speculation. 

All attempts to prepare other [2 + 4] cycloadducts of sulfoxides 115 with dienophiles such as maleic anhydride, ethyl azodicarboxylate, etc., have failed60. A method for preparing ordinary alkyl-substituted thiirene oxides (e.g. 18 R1 = R2 = alkyl) is still lacking. 

Interestingly, it appears that thiirene oxides also react with amidines (e.g. DBU) in a similar way2. 

---