Abstract:
Rongalite or sodium hydroxymethanesulfinate dihydrate acts as a bleaching agent and it is used in printing and dying industry. Due to its ability to deliver SO2 dianion, rongalite is useful to prepare sultines and sulfones. We have been exploiting its potential towards the construction of diverse polycylic frameworks. This account describes the utility of rongalite to expand the Diels-Alder chemistry via sultine or sulfone derivatives. In this context, rongalite played a critical role to increase the chemical space of unnatural amino acids, spirocycles, polycycles, sulfones and crown ethers. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.