The present research has demonstrated that selective C-S bond cleavages of dibenzothiophene and its derivatives are feasible by thia-Baeyer-Villiger type oxidation, i. e. the oxygen insertion process within a sulfoxide-carbon linkage, in the presence of porphyrin iron (III) and by ultraviolet irradiation originating from sunlight, high pressure Hg-lamp or residentially germicidal ultraviolet lamp under very mild conditions. This reaction with tert-butylhydroperoxide at 30.0 °C leads to dibenzo[1,2]oxathiin-6-oxide (PBS) in 83.2 % isolated yield or its hydrated products, 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-benzenesulfinic derivatives (HPBS) in near 100 % yield based HPLC data. PBS and HPBS are a type of biological products detected on the C-S bond cleavage step through various oxidative biodesulfurization (OBDS) pathways, and are useful synthetic intermediates and fine chemicals. These observations may contribute on understanding delicately molecular aspect of OBDS in the photosynthesis system, expanding the C-S cleavage chemistry of S-heterocyclic compounds and approaching toward biomemic desulfurization with respect to converting sulfur contaminants to chemically beneficial blocks as needed and performing under the ambient conditions.
Keywords: bond cleavage; desulfurization; dibenzothiophene; photocatalysis; porphyrin.
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