Oxidation of thiol compounds by molecular oxygen in aqueous solutions

Side self-oxidation of thiols was studied. It was found that these reactions in neutral and alkaline solutions are induced by impurities of variable-valence metals. The ability of transition metals to catalyze oxidation of thiols changes in the order Cu > Mn > Fe > Ni much greater than Co. The plot of the self-oxidation rate vs. pH passes through a maximum whose position on the pH scale depends on both the nature of metal and the structure of the thiol oxidized. For thiols having different structures, the kinetic orders in reactions catalyzed by copper ions differently vary with pH, which is apparently associated with the formation of complexes possessing different catalyti activity.