Substituent and steric effects in the oxidation of alkyl aryl sulfides by peroxydisulfate

Abstract

The kinetics of oxidation of a number of alkyl aryl sulfides with potassium peroxydisulfate in aqueous ethanol have been investigated. The effect of substituents on the oxidation has been studied by employing a number of p- and m-substituted phenyl methyl sulfides: the reaction is accelerated by electron-releasing and retarded by electron-withdrawing substituents, indicating a rate-determining electrophilic attack by the peroxydisulfate ion at the reaction site, sulfur. A good correlation is found to exist between the rate constants and the Hammett σ + /σ − constants, the ρ + value for the reaction being −0.56 with a correlation coefficient of 0.979. The activation parameters have also been determined.Studies with different alkyl phenyl sulfides clearly indicate that the reaction is quite sensitive to steric congestion around the reaction site. The results obtained in this study are compared with those found for the oxidation of the same set of sulfides with different oxidants.