6.04 Synthesis of Sulfides, Sulfoxides, and Sulfones

Abstract

The chapter presents progress in the synthesis of sulfides, sulfoxides, and sulfones, which comprises the method based on displacement by substitution processes, and which has been made in recent years (usually after 1992). To make the presentation more comprehensible, it also contains selected references to the earlier achievements. It is divided into three sections, including methods of synthesis of the three particular classes of organosulfur derivatives. The first section, devoted to sulfides, discusses both the methods using a single nucleophilic substitution and those in which the use of catalysts plays an important role. The second section, concerning sulfoxides, describes the synthesis of all kinds of sulfoxides, including S-chiral nonracemic ones, obtained in the asymmetric synthesis with the use of chiral catalysts or in the stereospecific transformations of diastereomerically pure precursors. Finally, the third section summarizes the methods of synthesis of sulfones in which various types of organosulfur compounds, such as sulfinic acids, sulfonyl halides, and sulfonic anhydrides, are used as substrates.