Transition metal catalysts carbon-sulfur bond formation

In another reaction of [Mo3S4] +, its aqua complex [Mo3S4(H20)9] + reacts with acetylene at room temperature in I m HCl to yield complex 61, according to Scheme 20. Here a bond is formed between a carbon atom within a hydrocarbon molecule and a sulfur atom of a metal-sulfide cluster. The adduct can be viewed as representing the transition state or intermediate presumed to be formed when an organosulfur molecule reacts with a sulfide vacancy of a heterogeneous catalyst (cf. Section 2.6.4) or a cluster. However, whereas the reaction depicted in Scheme 20 is the first step of a sulfurization process (C-S bond formation), the direction of the conversion would have to be reversed to make it the second step of a desulfurization process (C-S bond cleavage). 

Due to sluggish reactivity of aryl and vinyl halides in nucleophiUc substitution reactions, the formation of sulfur-carbon(sp ) bonds is typically carried out using transition metal catalysis [22-27]. While the field is dominated by the use of palladium, copper, and nickel catalysts, considerable advances have been made using more abundant metal catalysts such as iron. Additionally, a number of transition metal-fiee approaches have been developed for the formation of sulfur-carbon(sp ) bonds. The following sections will highlight representative examples of C—S bond forming reactions. 

---