Dynamic Covalent Chemistry under High-Pressure:A New Route to Disulfide Metathesis

This work describes, for the first time, the application of combined pressure and temperature stimuli in disulfide metathesis reactions. In the system studied, above a pressure of 0.2 GPa, equimolar amounts of symmetric disulfides bis 4-chlorophenyl disulfide [(4-ClPhS)₂ ] and bis 2-nitrophenyl disulfide [(2-NO₂ PhS)₂ ] react to give the heterodimeric product 4-Cl-PhSSPh-2-NO₂ . In contrast to experiments conducted in solution at atmospheric pressure or in mechanochemical experiments under ball-mill grinding conditions, there is no necessity to use a base or thiolate anion as a catalyst for the exchange reaction under investigated conditions. Single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction revealed also that, despite the high-pressure conditions of this reaction, the heterodimeric-disulfide product unexpectedly crystallizes into the low-density polymorph A. This counterintuitive result contrasts with the high-pressure stability of the higher-density polymorph B, confirmed by its compression up to 2.8 GPa with no signs of a phase transition.