Selective Aerobic Oxidation Of Sulfides To Sulfoxides Catalyzed By Coenzyme NAD~+ Models

Sulfoxides are important organic and medical intermediates, they have been used as therapeutic agents such as anti-ulcer (proton pump inhibitor), antibacterial, antifungal, anti-atherosclerotic, antihypertensive and cardiotonic agents, as well as psychotonics and vasodilators. In addition, sulfoxides are valuable synthons in synthetic organic chemistry for carbon–carbon bond formation, as chiral auxiliaries, for mediating Diels–Alder reactions, and for metal-centered catalysis.Traditionally we synthesize sulfoxides mainly by employing halogen derivatives or H2O2 to oxidize sulfides. But the methods using halogen derivatives often are hard to control and many by-products are produced; the methods using H2O2 mostly bring heavy metal ions into the system, and then it is hardly to be eliminated. So in the past years, it became more and more important for scientific researchers to develop simple and green methods for the transformation of sulfides to sulfoxides.We wish to report the first efficient, environmentally benign protocol in which O2 has been used as the oxidant at room temperature in the presence of NAD+ models for the selective oxidation of sulfides. We developed a new method for the synthesis of sulfoxides, and a plausible mechanism was also been discussed.