Selective synthesis of organic sulfides and disulfides by the reduction of elemental sulfur with samarium diiodide

Elemental sulfur can be reduced to the corresponding thiolate anion species (S^2? and S^2?₂) selectively by samarium diiodide in the presence and absence of HMPA, respectively. The subsequent alkylation of the thiolate anion species provides a useful synthetic route to dialkyl sulfides and disulfides. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 9: 581–584, 1998