Selective sulfoxidation of aryl sulfides by coordinatively unsaturated metal centers in chromium carboxylate MIL-101 Original Research Article

The nanoporous chromium carboxylate MIL-101 with coordinatively unsaturated chromium sites has been shown to be active in the sulfoxidation of aryl sulfides with H2O2 to selectively produce the corresponding sulfoxides. Interestingly, the electron-releasing groups in the oxygenation reaction of para-X-phenylmethyl sulfoxides (X-Ph-S-CH3, X = CH3, H, NO2, and CN) enhanced the oxidation reactivity in 1:1 mixtures of X-Ph-S-CH3:H-Ph-S-CH3. Moreover, the 18O-labeled experiments to understand the source of oxygen in sulfoxide products proved that the oxygen atom in the sulfoxide product was entirely derived from H2O2.