7321-59-7

Upstream product

• 676-85-7 methylsulphinyl chloride 
• 576-83-0 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl bromide 
• 7570-91-4 methyl mesityl sulphide 

Downstream Products

• 55757-31-8 1,3,5-trimethyl-4-thiocyanatobenzene 
• 18689-86-6 (R)-methyl mesityl sulfoxide 
• 82079-40-1 (S)-(2,4,6)-trimethylphenyl methyl sulfoxide 
• 1251954-99-0 C₁₁H₁₄F₃NO₃S₂ 
• 50418-78-5 (-)-(R)-S-(2-Mesityl)-S-methyl-sulfoximin 

Relevant academic research and scientific papers

Sequential deracemization of sulfoxides via whole-cell resolution and heterogeneous oxidation

A new concept for the synthesis of asymmetric sulfoxides exploiting sequential deracemization of racemic (rac) sulfoxides using a two-stage protocol had been developed. Enantio-pure sulfoxide was obtained using Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells to catalyze the reduction of (R)-sulfoxide to the thioether, and then using a heterogeneous Ta2O5-SiO2 catalyst for catalyzing the oxidation of the ethers to the rac-sulfoxide. The performance of E. coli depended on the strain and the conditions under which the bacteria growth was carried out (e.g. source of carbon, presence of vitamins, and concentration of dimethyl sulfoxide, DMSO). Under optimized conditions, the E. coli cells performed the rac-sulfoxide resolution for different sufoxides leading to the best enantiomeric excess (ee) of around 62% (S)-MTSO (methyl tolyl sulfoxide) with 49% conversion of the rac-MTSO. The sequential deracemization process applied for rac-MTSO was cyclically performed leading to 97.5% ee of (S)-sulfoxide and a 56% yield in (S)-sulfoxide after three deracemization cycles of rac-MTSO.

Systematic Evaluation of Sulfoxides as Catalysts in Nucleophilic Substitutions of Alcohols

Herein, a method for the nucleophilic substitution (SN) of benzyl alcohols yielding chloro alkanes is introduced that relies on aromatic sulfoxides as Lewis base catalysts (down to 1.5 mol-%) and benzoyl chloride (BzCl) as reagent. A systematic screening of various sulfoxides and other sulfinyl containing Lewis bases afforded (2-methoxyphenyl)methyl sulfoxide as optimal catalyst. In contrast to reported formamide catalysts, sulfoxides also enable the application of plain acetyl chloride (AcCl) as reagent. In addition, it was demonstrated that weakly electrophilic carboxylic acid chlorides like BzCl promote Pummerer rearrangement of sulfoxides already at room temperature. This side-reaction also provided the explanation, why sulfoxide catalyzed SN-reactions of alcohols do not allow the effective production of aliphatic and electron deficient chloro alkanes. Comparison experiments provided further insight into the reaction mechanism.

Highly enantioselective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides by a new oxaziridinium salt

The new oxaziridinium salt 5 (R2 = TBDPS) is an effective reagent for the highly enantioselective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides with up to >99% ee and good yields. As such, it represents a new valuable nonmetallic alternative to the existing methods for asymmetric sulfoxidation.