Towards New Imidazole-2-Thione-Based Organocatalysts; Sulfur Transfer Vs. Deoxygenation in the Reaction of Imidazole N-Oxides and Cycloaliphatic Thioketones
or deoxygenation? Competitive transformations of the title imidazole N-oxides into respective masked thiourea analogs or into the parent heterocycle in the reaction with 2,2,4,4-tetramethylcyclobutane-1,3-dithione are presented. The influence of an electron-withdrawing substituents in combination with the steric hindrance of neighboring groups onto reaction outcome is discussed. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT