Thermal behaviour of benzenesulfenamides and of their chromium carbonyl complexes

Benzenesulfenamides with the formula R-S-N-(R)₂ (R=C₆H₅ andR=NC₄H₈O, C₇H₇ and C₆H₁₁) and their chromium carbonyl complexes were studied by means of TG and mass spectrometric methods. The thermal behaviour of the compounds the stabilities of free sulfenamides are lower than those observed for the corresponding chromium carbonyl complexes. Combined thermogravimetry — mass spectrometry results suggest that the fragmentation mechanism of the carbonyl complexes involves cleavage of the Cr-S and Cr-CO bonds while that of sulfenamide depends mainly on the dissociation rates of the NR₂ groups.This work was partially supported by the Departamento técnico de Investigation of the Universidad de Chile, Grant Q3280/9324.