Reaction of Carbenes with Divalent Sulfur Compounds

Abstract

The first extensive treatment of this subject by Ando¹ appeared about two decades ago and dealt primarily with stabilized sulfur ylides formed by a carbene-sulfide reaction and the different reaction pathways that followed. A more recent treatment by Anisimov and coworkers² focuses on the reaction of carbenes with unsaturated sulfides. The current endeavor will deal primarily with the reaction of carbenes with sulfides and polysulfides. Although literature prior to 1976 will be mentioned, emphasis will be on material published between 1976 and spring of 1991. Due to the bias already present in the literature, halo- and carboalkoxycar-benes form the core of the reactions. Other carbenes and carbenoid reactions are mentioned wherever appropriate.

Based on 115 recent literature references this review draws up the present status of the photochemistry of thiocarbonyl compounds.

Key Words:

• Carbenes
• disulfides
• sigmatropic rearrangements
• Stevens rearrangement
• sulfides
• trisulfides
• Photochemistry
• thiocarbonyl compounds