Sodium methylsulfinylmethylide (also called NaDMSO or dimsyl sodium) is the

sodium Sodium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Na (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 element, group 1 of the peri ...

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

dimethyl sulfoxide Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is an organosulfur compound with the formula . This colorless liquid is the sulfoxide most widely used commercially. It is an important polar aprotic solvent that dissolves both polar and nonpolar compounds and is ...

. It has the

chemical formula A chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, such as pare ...

. This unusual salt has some uses in

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

as a base and

nucleophile In chemistry, a nucleophile is a chemical species that forms bonds by donating an electron pair. All molecules and ions with a free pair of electrons or at least one pi bond can act as nucleophiles. Because nucleophiles donate electrons, they are ...

. Since the first publication in 1965 by

Corey Corey is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a masculine version of name Cora, which has Greek origins and is the maiden name of the goddess Persephone. The name also can have origins from the Gaelic word ''coire'', which means "in a caul ...

''et al.'', a number of additional uses for this reagent have been identified.

Preparation

Sodium methylsulfinylmethylide is prepared by heating

sodium hydride Sodium hydride is the chemical compound with the empirical formula Na H. This alkali metal hydride is primarily used as a strong yet combustible base in organic synthesis. NaH is a saline (salt-like) hydride, composed of Na+ and H− ions, in co ...

sodium amide Sodium amide, commonly called sodamide (systematic name sodium azanide), is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a salt composed of the sodium cation and the azanide anion. This solid, which is dangerously reactive toward water, is whit ...

DMSO Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is an organosulfur compound with the formula . This colorless liquid is the sulfoxide most widely used commercially. It is an important polar aprotic solvent that dissolves both polar and nonpolar compounds and is ...

: :

Reactions

As a base

The p''K''_a of DMSO is 35, which leads NaDMSO to be a powerful Brønsted base. NaDMSO is used in the generation of

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

and

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

ylide An ylide () or ylid () is a neutral dipolar molecule containing a formally negatively charged atom (usually a carbanion) directly attached to a heteroatom with a formal positive charge (usually nitrogen, phosphorus or sulfur), and in which both ...

s. NaDMSO in DMSO is especially convenient in the generation of dimethyloxosulfonium methylide and dimethylsulfonium methylide.

Reaction with esters

NaDMSO

condense Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle. It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor ...

s with

ester In chemistry, an ester is a compound derived from an acid (either organic or inorganic) in which the hydrogen atom (H) of at least one acidic hydroxyl group () of that acid is replaced by an organyl group (R). These compounds contain a distin ...

s (1) to form β-ketosulfoxides (2), which can be useful intermediates. Reduction of β-ketosulfoxides with

aluminium amalgam Aluminium amalgam is a solution of aluminium in mercury. In practice the term refers to particles or pieces of aluminium with a surface coating of the amalgam. A gray solid, it is typically used for organic reductions. It is written as Al(Hg) in ...

gives

methyl In organic chemistry, a methyl group is an alkyl derived from methane, containing one carbon atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms, having chemical formula (whereas normal methane has the formula ). In formulas, the group is often abbreviated as ...

ketone In organic chemistry, a ketone is an organic compound with the structure , where R and R' can be a variety of carbon-containing substituents. Ketones contain a carbonyl group (a carbon-oxygen double bond C=O). The simplest ketone is acetone ( ...

s (3). Reaction with alkyl halides followed by elimination gives α,β-unsaturated ketones (4). β-ketosulfoxides can also be used in the

Pummerer rearrangement The Pummerer rearrangement is an organic reaction whereby an alkyl sulfoxide rearranges to an α- acyloxy–thioether (monothioacetal-ester) in the presence of acetic anhydride. The stoichiometry of the reaction is: :RS(O)CHR'2 + Ac2O → ...

to introduce

s alpha to a

carbonyl In organic chemistry, a carbonyl group is a functional group with the formula , composed of a carbon atom double bond, double-bonded to an oxygen atom, and it is divalent at the C atom. It is common to several classes of organic compounds (such a ...

(5). :

References

External links

* * {{cite web , url = http://stenutz.eu/sop/sop401.html , title = Preparation of dimsyl sodium , date=June 2009 Reagents for organic chemistry Organosodium compounds