Prepration of Dimethyldithiocarbamate(DMC) by Reductive Disulfide Bond Breaking of Tetramethylthiuram(TMT) Disulfide in Presence of Mg++

Abstract

             The Mg(II) complex [Mg2(DMC)2((DMC)2] has been synthesized directly from thiram ligand, containing a disulfide bond and characterized by elemental analysis and spectroscopic methods. Surprisingly thiram, undergoes a reductive disulfide bond scission upon reaction with Zn2+ in methanolic media to give the Mg complex. The crystal structure of Mg++ complex has been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Mg is +2 coordinate, with four nearly identical tetrahedral bonds and a longer fifth bond being similar to some reported [Mg(dtc)2(L)] complexes. The crystal structure of this complex is built up of dimeric units, [Mg(dmdtc)(dmdtc)2], so that each unit has two thiocarbamate groups, one wholly bound to a zinc atom as a bidentate ligand and the other in a bridging coordination mode between the two Mg++ atoms. This structure clearly shows scission of the disulfide bond in the thiram ligand to give two dimethyldithiocarbamate ligands coordinated to the Mg(II) ion.