title: Oxidation of sulfoxides by hydrogen peroxide, catalyzed by methyltrioxorhenium(VII).
abstract: Dialkyl and diaryl sulfoxides are oxidized to sulfones by hydrogen peroxide using methyltrioxorhenium as the catalyst. The reaction rate is negligible without a catalyst. The kinetics study was performed in CH3CN-H2O (4:1 v/v) at 298 K with [H+] at 0.1 M, conditions which make the equilibration between MTO and its peroxo complexes more rapid than the oxygen-transfer step. The values for the rate constant for the oxygen-transfer step lie in the range 0.1-3 L mol-1 s-1. The rate constants were significantly smaller than for the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides. A study of ring-substituted diaryl sulfoxides yielded kinetics results that are consistent with nucleophilic attack of the sulfur atom on the peroxide oxygen group since rho = -0.65. The results cited refer to the reactions of the diperoxo from the catalyst, MeRe(O)(eta 2-O2)2H2O. The monoperoxo complex showed no measurable reactivity toward sulfoxides, in contrast with the situation for nearly every other substrate. That unusual finding suggests a hydrogen-bonded interaction between the substrate and the diperoxorhenium compound which cannot exist with the monoperoxo compound.
authors.affiliation: Ames Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Lahti
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Espenson