The Through-Bond Interaction of a Sulfur Lone Pair with Oxygenated Substituents in the Thiacyclohexane Framework

Abstract

Low-temperature X-ray crystal structures were determined on a range of derivatives of 4-thiacyclohexanol 5a of varying electron demand with a view to finding evidence for a through-bond interaction between the sulfur lone pair and the oxygenated substituent. In contrast to earlier suggestions, plots of C–OR bond distance versus pKa (ROH) showed that any interaction between the sulfur and the OR group is unlikely to be of a through-bond origin. Furthermore, unimolecular solvolysis rate measurements on the nosylate ester derivative 5g showed that the sulfur actually retards the reaction slightly in comparison with the corresponding sulfur-free analogue 6.