Chiral sulfur-containing structures:: Selected synthetic and structural aspects

Synthetic procedures applied for the preparation of a new diastereomerically pure sulfinate and amidosulfite and a few enantiomerically pure sulfinyl derivatives, including sulfoxides functionalized with a perfluorocumyl substituent, are presented. Attempts to polymerize optically active 2(3-thienyl)ethyl p-tolyl sulfoxide are also mentioned. Mechanistic and stereochemical aspects of the presented protocols are discussed. Structural studies, which include the X-ray, circular dichroism, and vibrational circular dichroism-based determinations of the absolute configurations at the stereogenic sulfur atoms and calculations of conformational equilibria for a few model sulfur-containing compounds are also described. The use of optically active t-butylphenylthiophosphinic acid as a chiral solvating agent is illustrated. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.