Chemoselective electrophilic oxidation of heteroatoms by hydroperoxy sultams

The synthesis of novel hydroperoxy sultams 1b-d and their potential as renewable chemoselective electrophilic oxidants for a wide range of nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus heteroatoms in nonaqueous media is described. Reactions of 1b,c with secondary amines 10f.g yielded the hydroxysultams 2b,c and nitrone 11f or radical 11g depending on the substrate and stoichiometry, while tertiary amines 10a-d gave amine oxides 11a-d. Compounds 1c,d oxidized various thioethers 12a-g to sulfoxides 13a-g smoothly that were isolated by chromatography in nearly quantitative yields. 1c was regenerated from 2c by treatment of the latter with acidified H2O2. Kinetic studies of the reaction of 1c with 1,4-thioxane 12f suggest that the reaction follows the second-order kinetics, first order in substrate and first order in oxidant with the second-order rate constant several orders of magnitude larger than that of the corresponding reaction with hydrogen peroxide and tert-butyl hydroperoxide without the need for any acid or heavy metal catalysts. The phosphines 14a,b were also oxidized by 1c to the respective phosphine oxides 15a,b readily in quantitative yields. The reactions may be conducted at ambient temperature or lower and appear to proceed via a nonradical mechanism. Reactions are sensitive to steric as well as electronic factors.