Thionyl Chloride-A Good Ligand Coupling Reagent-

Abstract

Thionyl chloride is known to be a pyramidal structure as show below¹)

and has been known to be a good chlorinating reagent of aliphatic alcohols, amides, carbonylates, epoxides, oximes and sulfonic acids and various others.²) It reacts with phenols to afford phenolic diaryl sulfides³) A good example would be the reaction of a seconary alcohol with thionyl chloride, shown below,which has been known to proceed with a partial retention of configuration as shown below.