Thiol synthetic conditions

The base-catalysed addition of thiols to Jt-electron-deficient alkenes is an important aspect of synthetic organic chemistry. Particular use of Triton-B, in place of inorganic bases, has been made in the reaction of both aryl and alkyl thiols with 1-acyloxy-l-cyanoethene, which behaves as a formyl anion equivalent in the reaction [1], Tetra-n-butylammonium and benzyltriethylammonium fluoride also catalyse the Michael-type addition of thiols to a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds [2], The reaction is usually conducted under homogeneous conditions in telrahydrofuran, 1,2-dimethoxyethane, acetone, or acetonitrile, to produce the thioethers in almost quantitative yields (Table 4.22). Use has also been made of polymer-supported qua-... 

This chapter reports on the reactivity of organic carbonates as alkylating agents, with emphasis on the lightest term of the series, DMC. Under both CF and batch conditions, DMC can react with a number of nucleophilic substrates such as phenols, primary amines, sulfones, thiols, and methylene-active derivatives of aryl and aroxy-acetic acids. The mechanistic and synthetic aspects of these processes will be elucidated. 

The spontaneous reaction of nitric oxide with thiols is slow at physiological pH and the final product under anaerobic conditions is not a nitrosothiol (Pryor et al., 1982). The reaction is slow because it involves the conjugate base of the thiol (R—S"). At pH 7.0, the oxidation of cysteine by nitric oxide required 6 hr to reach completion and yields RSSR and N 2O as the products. The synthetic preparation of nitrosothiols usually involves the addition of nitrosonium ion from acidified nitrite to the thiol, or oxidation of the thiol with nitrogen dioxide under anaerobic conditions in organic solvents. Nitric oxide will form nitrosothiols by reaction with ferric heme groups, such as found in metmyoglobin or methemoglobin (Wade and Castro, 1990). It is also possible that nitrosyldioxyl radical also reacts with thiols to form a nitrosothiol. 

Synthetically useful routes to dibenzo[c,e J[l,2]dithiins are normally based on cyclizations of biphenyI-2,2 -disulfonyl chlorides. A method applied successfully to the parent compound reduces the precursor with zinc in acetic acid to generate the bis thiol, which is then gently oxidized to the dithiin using iron(II) chloride (66HC(21-2)952). An alternative one-step reductive cyclization, which has been applied to the preparation of the 2,9- and 3,8-dinitro derivatives, involves reduction of the appropriate bis sulfonyl chlorides with hydriodic acid in acetic acid (68MI22600). Yet another reductive cyclization uses sodium sulfite followed by acidification, and these conditions lead to dibenzo[c,e][1,2]dithiin 5,5-dioxide. The first step of the reaction is reduction to the disodium salt of biphenyl-2,2 -disulfinic acid which, on acidification, forms the anhydride, i.e. dibenzo[c,e][l,2]dithiin 5,5,6-trioxide. This is not isolated, but is reduced by the medium to the 5,5-dioxide (77JOC3265). Derivatives of dibenzo[c,e] [1,2]dithiin in oxidation states other than those mentioned here are obtainable by appropriate oxidation or reduction reactions (see Section 2.26.3.1.4). 

Wild-type subtilisin BPN with the mutation Ser — Cys-24 has a kcat value of 59 s 1 and a KM value of 200 fxM with the synthetic substrate N-succinyl-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe p-nitroanilide, compared with a rate constant of 1.1 X 10 8 s 1 for its spontaneous hydrolysis under the same conditions. Replacement of Asp-32, His-64, and Ser-221 one at a time by alanine reduced the value of kcat by factors of 3 X 104, 2 X 106, and 2 X 106, respectively. Converting all three to alanine also decreases activity by 2 X 106. The value of KM increases only by a factor of two on all these mutations.34 It is unlikely that the residual activity results from the presence of a small amount of wild-type active site in the thiol mutants... 

In organo-fluorine compounds fluorine atoms can be eliminated by nucleophilic sulfur species to form C —S bonds. In principle, the fluorine to be eliminated can be bonded to aliphatic or araliphatic compounds, as well as to aromatic or heterocyclic compounds however, the replacement proceeds more efficiently the more the fluorine is activated. Therefore, the synthetic usefulness of these reactions is the broadest with fluoroaromatic compounds, including heteroaromatics, with which the reactions often proceed smoothly under mild conditions. The nucleophilic sulfur compound to be reacted is. in most cases, an aliphatic or aromatic thiol or a metal sulfide, but reactions with, for example, thiourea or ammonium thiocyanate have also been described. The sulfur introduced this way can be either oxidized or removed by reduction, opening additional possibilities for modifications of the original fluoro compounds. 

Thiols, like alcohols, react readily with carbonyl compounds. The resulting hemithioacetals (102), thioacetals (103) and their cyclic analogues (104) and (105) are of considerable synthetic importance. These compounds are more stable to acid hydrolysis than their oxygen analogues but can be hydrolyzed under mild conditions in the presence of metal ions such as Ag(I) (equation 29). The synthetic importance of the metal ion-promoted hydrolyses has led to the publication... 

With regard to the use of protease in the synthetic mode, the reaction can be carried out using a kinetic or thermodynamic approach. The kinetic approach requires a serine or cysteine protease that forms an acyl-enzyme intermediate, such as trypsin (E.C. 3.4.21.4), a-chymotrypsin (E.C. 3.4.21.1), subtilisin (E.C. 3.4.21.62), or papain (E.C. 3.4.22.2), and the amino donor substrate must be activated as the ester (Scheme 19.27) or amide (not shown). Here the nucleophile R3-NH2 competes with water to form the peptide bond. Besides amines, other nucleophiles such as alcohols or thiols can be used to compete with water to form new esters or thioesters. Reaction conditions such as pH, temperature, and organic solvent modifiers are manipulated to maximize synthesis. Examples of this approach using carboxypeptidase Y (E.C. 3.4.16.5) from baker s yeast have been described.219... 

Other reagents can add to carbon-carbon double bonds in synthetically useful yields by similar radical chain mechanisms. The reaction of an alkene with a thiol under radical conditions results in the addition of the sulfur and a hydrogen to the carbons of the double bond ... 

Review. New synthetic reactions based on the onium salts of aza-arenes have been reviewed (75 references). The reactions discussed involve activation of carboxylic acids or alcohols with 2-haIopyridinium, benzoxazolium, benzothiazolium, and pyridinium salts to afford 2-acyloxy or 2-alkoxy intermediates, which can be transformed into esters, amides, thiol esters, (macrocyclic) lactones, acid fluorides, olefins, allenes, carbodiimides, isocyanates, isothiocyanates, and nitriles under appropriate conditions. 

Besides the halo-subsituted Z derivatives, the Msz group, a group that is based on the safety-catch principle, is of potential interest for particular synthetic tasks as it is stable toward acidic and basic reaction conditions, but it is readily cleaved in a one-pot procedure with silicon tetrachloride/TFA in the presence of scavengers such as anisole, phenols, sulfides, selenides, and thiols. 

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