Recent developments in the greener approaches for the dithioacetalization of carbonyl compounds

Abstract

The protection of carbonyl functional groups via dithioacetalization with thiols or dithiols plays a significant role in multi-step organic syntheses, such as natural products and drug synthesis. Therefore, dithioacetalization has always been cherished as one of the most important organic transformations in both academic and industrial research. Numerous synthetic strategies for the dithioacetalization of carbonyl compounds have been reported in the literature for the synthesis of industrially valuable organosulfur compounds or precursors like acyclic dithioacetals, dithiolanes, and dithianes. Regardless of having many conventional efficient synthetic protocols, greener approaches have been recognized as a viable alternative due to environmental and health concerns. Consequently, the growing trend of developing greener methods stimulated by the green chemistry concept for dithioacetalization is inevitable. The present review is aimed to highlight the recent advances in the greener and convenient synthetic approaches employed for the dithioacetalization of carbonyl compounds.