Oxidation of organic sulfides with clay-supported iodosylbenzene as oxygen donor

Abstract Alkyl, aryl and diaryl sulfides afford excellent yields of sulfoxides with PhIO supported on natural (montmorillonite, KSF and bentonite clay) as well as cation-exchanged clays of K10-montmorillonite in acetonitrile suspension and also in solid state. A ligand coupling mechanism for this facile oxidation is proposed.