Odourless thiols and sulfides

22 November 2004

It is not a new idea, but a recent publication by Node and coworkers* highlighted a number of odourless thiols and a sulfide which have been successfully applied to dealkylation, Michael addition, Swern oxidation and Corey-Kim oxidation reactions.

The odourless thiols included dodecanethiol, 4-n-heptylphenylmethanethiol, 4-trimethylsilylphenylmethanethiol and 4-trimethylsilylbenzenethiol). The odourless sulfide was 1-methyl-sulfanyldodecane.

This of course, overcomes the smelliness associated with the more common thiols and sulfides, such as benzenethiol, dimethyl sulfide/DMSO, ethanethiol etc, thus making scale-up less problematic.

*M. Node et al., Monatsh. Chem, 2004, 135(2), 189-200.