Sulfoximines: Structures, Properties and Synthetic Applications

This review presents a comprehensive treatment of sulfoximine chemistry particularly emphasising synthetic developments and structural work after 1985. Following a brief introduction, the structures and properties of sulfoximines and metallated sulfoximines are discussed. The second section deals with the preparation of sulfoximines emphasising new methods. The main part of the review is concerned with reactions of sulfoximines. The material in this section is organised based on the reactivity pattern displayed by the various sulfoximines. Therefore they are grouped roughly into three classes of compounds. The first group of sulfoximines comprises compounds acting as C-nucleophiles, the second one contains electrophilic sulfoximines and the last group is made up of sulfoximines being useful as (chiral) ligands particularly for transition metals. Finally the ability of sulfoximines to act as "chiral chemical chameleons" and their rôle in biological and medicinal chemistry is briefly discussed.