Recent Advances in Organic Reactions Involving Elemental Sulfur

Elemental sulfur has been known since Antiquity and found widespread applications in the preparation of black gunpowder, the synthesis of sulfuric acid as well as other sulfur-containing compounds, and the vulcanization of rubber. Over the last several years, we have come to better understand its properties and discover more applications of elemental sulfur in synthetic organic chemistry. This review summarizes the advances from 2000 in the construction of organic molecules using elemental sulfur via sulfuration, oxidation, reduction and redox condensation processes.