RPLC Retention of Oxygen Containing Non-Ionic Organic Sulfur Compounds

Abstract

All formal oxidation products of alkylthioethers (alkyl sulfides) from alkanesulfenic acid ester through dialkylsulfate have been investigated via HPLC at an ODS phase. The possible bond states of oxygen-sulfur, >S[dbnd]O and R-O-S, produce different retention effects. The former reduces retention strongly, the latter only little. In sulfoxides and sulfones, insertion of O between R and S leads to a pronounced retention increase. The observed retention changes can be coarsely related to solute dipole moments. The correlation between retention and solute size is good for different terminal groups R.