-A-
-
shift difference between H, and H,. Even so, the structural environment of each methylenic proton in the dimer must be essentially identical; the singlet methylene signal shown in Figure 1 is quite narrow (as narrow as that signal from the symmetrical sulfone 3) and, at -37", the singlet does not broaden even when the sulfoxide is in quite dilute CDCl, solution.' Acknowledgment. This work was generously supported by a grant from the Research Corporation of America. (7) Decrease in the chemical shift (6) between Heand H t still occurs with decreasing temperature, ultimately to coalesce, even when only enough CDCls is added to 1 to prevent its solidification (ca. an equimolar amount of chloroform). In carbon tetrachloride 1 shows the same decrease in 6 with temperature, but the solution freezes just before coalescence. However, in DzO and in dimethyl sulfoxide 6 remains constant with temperature change, as would be expected if solvation by these very polar solvents prevented 1 from dimerizing. (8) Tennessee Eastman Graduate Fellow at the University of Tennessee, 1962-1963 ; correspondence should be addressed to the Department of Chemistry, Memphis State University, Memphis, Tenn.
Robert F. Watson: Jerome F. Eastham Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee Received September 25, 1964
0
250
Figure 1. Methylene p.m.r. signals (60 Mc.) f r o m 2-thiaindane 2oxide (1) a t various temperatures. C u r v e a t 200" f r o m melt of 1, others f r o m CDCI, solutions; C.P.S. measured downfield f r o m
TMS.
we have now found that sulfoxide 1 in cyclohexan: causes a molal freezing point depression of just on-half the normal value (20") for that solvent.4 As temperature decreases the intimacy of this bimolecular association of 1 must increase, apparently in such a manner as to decrease the chemical shift between H, and H,. Since these protons are symmetrically related to the aromatic ring, the chemical shift between them is a consequence of the distinction between the spatial orientations of sulfoxide oxygen relative to them,5 and hence Figure 1 shows that at a sufficiently low temperature H, and Ht must be in an environment of essentially equivalently oriented oxygen atoms.
>t H s H
Optical Rotatory Dispersion and Absolute Configuration of Dialkyl Sulfoxides' Sir: Our interest in the relation between structure and optical rotatory power of sulfoxides2 has prompted a
2t
, - . O \ s b
\0*-'
H
4
Our interpretation of these observations is the assignment to 1 of a dimeric structure tentatively depicted by 4. The bonding of the dimer represented by dotted lines in 4 may be simply electrostatic, i.e., dipoledipole interaction of the two S-0 groups, but these dotted lines could also represent some covalency, Le., ( 3 d ~ r ) ~ - ( 2 p aoverlap. )~ We d o not propose that the dotted and solid lines in the four-membered ring of 4 are equivalent.6 Thus it seems likely that with decrease in the temperature of the dimer the consequent decrease in torsional oscillations of the sulfoxide group may contribute to the elimination of a chemical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra," McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, N. Y., 1959, p. 99. (4) Other workers have also recently noted the dimeric association of other sulfoxides in hydrocarbon medium [K. Mislow, M. M. Green, P. Lauer, and D . R. Chisholm, J . A m . Chem. SOC.,87, 665 (19631 and in carbon tetrachloride (C. D. Ritchie, unpublished observations). ( 5 ) Reference 3, p. 165 ff. (6) The equivalency or equilibration of these four bonds would result in inversion of the sulfoxide geometry, which does not occur.
Figure 1. Spectra a n d 0.r.d. curves (corrected to optical purity) t a r e calculated on
of methyl n-butyl sulfoxide. Values of [+I a n d the basis of monomeric species.
(1) We gratefully acknowledge support by the National Science Foundation (GP-3375). (2) K. Mislow, A. L. Ternay, Jr., and J. T. Melillo, J . A m . Chem. SOC., 85, 2329 (1963)
Communications to the Editor
665
study of the optical rotatory dispersion (0.r.d.) of starting material, l 2 the absolute configuration of (+)-methyl n-butyl sulfoxide (I). A Cotton effect (+)-(I) is (SI. is found to be centered a t the absorption maximum Absolute configurations may now be assigned to below 210 mp whose solvent dependence (Figure 1) other methyl alkyl sulfoxides by comparison of 0.r.d. characterizes it as an n ---t T* transition3; in contrast, curves with that of I. Thus, the methyl alkyl sulfoxides the shoulder near 215 m p is relatively solvent insensistudied by Klyne, et have negative plain curves t i ~ e . We ~ have found by vapor pressure osmometry5 which are tails of negative sulfoxide Cotton effects (v.p.0.) at 37" that, whereas I is monomeric in ethanol centered near 203 nip (acetonitrile); these compounds and acetonitrile, it is dimeric in cyclohexane; over the therefore have the (R)-configuration. l 6 Similarly, range from 0.018 t o 0.055 M the dimerization appears since ( - ) - ~ - s u l p h o r a p h a n e ~ ~(CH3SO(CHy)?NCS) -~~ t o be essentially complete.B It has previously been has a negative Cotton effect20and therefore has the ( R ) reported that sulfoxides associate in s o l u t i ~ n . ~ configuration, ~~ l6 the arbitrary D and L nomenclature We therefore cannot rule out at present the possibility adopted for derivatives of this may now that the absorption spectrum (and 0.r.d.) of I in cyclobe abandoned. hexane is that of the dimer or a composite of monomer Our work on sulfoxides in continuing. and dimer.g (14) W. Klyne, J. Day, and A. I
