Sulfur Extrusion Reactions - Scope and Mechanistic Aspects

This review details a significant and representative set of examples in the literature where one of the products in a chemical reaction is elemental sulfur. While the mechanism of such extrusions is not clearly understood, several mechanistic possibilities have been considered including the likelihood of thiosulfoxide intermediates, the concatenation of sulfur atoms and the elimination of singlet diatomic sulfur as a discrete species. Details of the mechanistic efforts that have been uncovered in the literature are included as well as our own work in this area. In order to help avoid confusion for the reader, the nomenclature (although sometimes inconsistent) is in most cases that which appeared in the original articles.