Preparation of vinylglycines by thermolysis of homocysteine sulfoxides

The synthesis and efficacy of preparing Cbz-VG-OMe (1) by thermolysis of alkyl and aryl homocysteine sulfoxides were surveyed. This investigation determined that aryl sulfoxide analogs were more effective for the reaction and that the 2-nitrophenyl analog 10f possessed a unique ability to syn eliminate at temperatures as low as 100 °C. The thermolysis of sulfoxide 10f was additionally discovered to occur under toluene reflux and when sodium acetate was added, Cbz-VG-OMe (1) could be obtained in high purity by simple filtration of the precipitated sulfenic acid byproduct 12. This mild protocol which was also applied in the synthesis of VG dipeptide 13 would have utility in the general synthesis of olefins and alkenes from 2-nitrophenylsulfoxides.