Reaction of Singlet Oxygen with Thioanisole in Ionic Liquid-Acetonitrile Binary Mixtures

A study of the reaction of thioanisole with singlet oxygen in different ionic liquid acetonitrile binary mixtures has shown that ILs are able to accelerate the thioanisole sulfoxidation when used as additives. With imidazolium ILs, the maximum efficiency is reached at X-IL similar to 0.1-0.2, whereas for the pyrrolidinium IL a plateau is reached. These results are discussed in terms of the ILs' tendency to form ionic aggregates and of differences in sulfoxidation reaction mechanism.