An Improved Synthesis of 2,2′-Dimercaptobiphenyl

Abstract

The preparation of transition-metal thiolato complexes as synthetic biomimics¹ has led to a resurgent interest in the synthesis of organic thiols and their derivatives. The compound 2,2′-dimercaptobiphenyl, 1, offers interesting possibilities as a ligand, and it has been used recently to displace iron-sulfur clusters from low molecular-weight Fe-S proteins.² The two previous preparations for 1 require a coupling reaction of diazonium salts.^3,4 Overall yields of 10%³ and 30%⁴ are made even less attractive by the need to precipitate copper by-products with H₂S after the coupling step.