Thiocarboxylic acid


Thiocarboxylic acids are organosulfur compounds related to carboxylic acids by replacement of one of the oxygen atoms with a sulfur atom. Two tautomers are possible: a thione form and a thiol form. These are sometimes also referred to as "carbothioic O-acid" and "carbothioic S-acid" respectively. Of these the thiol form is most common.
A naturally occurring thiocarboxylic acid is pyridine-2,6-dicarbothioic acid, a siderophore.

Synthesis

Thiocarboxylic acids are typically prepared by salt metathesis from the acid chloride, as in the following conversion of benzoyl chloride to thiobenzoic acid using potassium hydrosulfide according to the following idealized equation:

Reactions

At neutral pH, thiocarboxylic acids are fully ionized. Thiocarboxylic acids are about 100 times more acidic than the analogous carboxylic acids. For PhCSH pKa = 2.48 vs 4.20 for PhCOH. For thioacetic acid the pKa is near 3.4.
Their conjugate bases, e.g. potassium thioacetate, serve as reagents for installing thiol groups via the displacement of alkyl halides to give the thioester, which in turn are susceptible to hydrolysis.
Thiocarboxylic acids react with various nitrogen functional groups, such as organic azide, nitro, and isocyanate compounds, to give amides under mild conditions. This method avoids needing a highly nucleophilic aniline or other amine to initiate an amide-forming acyl substitution, but requires synthesis and handling of the unstable thiocarboxylic acid. Unlike the Schmidt reaction or other nucleophilic-attack pathways, the reaction with an aryl or alkyl azide begins with a cycloaddition; the resulting heterocycle expels N2 and the sulfur atom to give the monosubstituted amide.

Dithiocarboxylic acids

Dithiocarboxylic acids, with the formula RCS2H, are less common than the monothio derivatives. They are about 3x more acidic than the monothiocarboxylic acids. Thus, for dithiobenzoic acid pKa = 1.92. Such compounds are commonly prepared by the reaction of carbon disulfide with a Grignard reagent:
This reaction is comparable to the formation of carboxylic acids using a Grignard reagent and carbon dioxide. Dithiocarboxylate salts readily S-alkylate to give dithiocarboxylate esters:
Aryldithiocarboxylic acids, e.g., dithiobenzoic acid, chlorinate to give the thioacyl chlorides.