Deep Eutectic Solvents: An Alternative Medium for the Preparation of Organosulfur Compounds

Abstract

Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES) as a “green solvent” has been used as an alternative to replace Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and traditional Ionic Liquids (ILs). In recent years, DES has gained much attention due to its excellent properties such as low cost, easy preparation, high viscosity, low vapor pressure, low volatility, high thermal stability, biodegradability and non-toxicity, among others. Other classes of compounds with increased interest are organosulfur compounds due to their applicability as synthetic intermediates in organic reactions and their high importance in pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. This review describes the recent advances in the preparation of organosulfur compounds using DES as an alternative solvent, focusing on several types of organic reactions, including aromatic substitution reactions (SNAr), condensation, cyclocondensation, cyclization, ring-opening, thia-Michael addition, one-pot reactions and heterocyclodehydrations.