Synthelia in collaboration with Prof. José Alemán and Prof. Silvia Cabrera has just published its latest scientific researches concerning flow photocatalytic oxidation of thioethers using a novel Pt(II) cat. The continuous photooxidation process has been development in a reactor based on a FEP capillary coil wherein a combination of thiether and catalyst (1 mol%) were pumped together (channel 1) and mixed with oxygen (channel 2). The heterogeneous mixture was introduced into the reactor and irradiated with blue LED for a determinate time.
This system has been capable of oxidizing a large number of sulfides containing aryl, alkyl, allyl, benzyl, as well as more complex structures such as heterocycles and methionine amino acid, with complete chemoselectivity (neither overoxidation to sulfone nor byproducts were detected in any case), and conversions up to 100%.
For more details, see Chem. Commun., 2016, DOI: 10.1039/C6CC02452A
