Oxidation of symmetric disulfides with hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by Methyltrioxorhenium(VII)

Organic disulfides with both alkyl and aryl substituents are oxidized by hydrogen peroxide when CH(3)ReO(3) (MTO) is used as a catalyst. The first step of the reaction is complete usually in about an hour, at which point the thiosulfinate, RS(O)SR, can be detected in nearly quantitative yield. The thiosulfinate is then converted, also by MTO-catalyzed oxidation under these conditions, to the thiosulfonate and, over long periods, to sulfonic acids, RSO(3)H. In the absence of excess peroxide, RS(O)SR (R = p-tolyl), underwent disproportionation to RS(O)(2)SR and RSSR. Kinetics studies of the first oxidation reaction established that two peroxorhenium compounds are the active forms of the catalyst, CH(3)ReO(2)(eta(2)-O(2)) (A) and CH(3)ReO(eta(2)-O(2))(2).(OH(2)) (B). Their reactivities are similar; typical rate constants (L mol(-)(1) s(-)(1), 25 degrees C, aqueous acetonitrile) are k(A) = 22, k(B) = 150 (Bu(2)S(2)) and k(A) = 1.4, k(B) = 11 (Tol(2)S(2)). An analysis of the data for (p-XC(6)H(4))(2)S(2) by a plot of log k(B) against the Hammett sigma constant gave rho = -1.89, supporting a mechanism in which the electron-rich sulfur attacks a peroxo oxygen of intermediates A and B.