Activation and Catalytic Degradation of SF and PhSF at a Bismuth Center.

In this work, we report the catalytic degradation of SF and PhSF using ,, pincer bismuthinidene complexes ( and ). Exposure of SF and PhSF to results in the reduction of the S(VI) substrates and concomitant formation of Bi(III) and Bi(II) compounds, which were isolated and characterized. The oxidized bismuth-based products were demonstrated to undergo reduction with PMe, recovering the starting complex . Having established a synthetic redox cycle, the catalytic degradation of SF and PhSF was developed through ligand optimization to , leading to a 528 TON for SF and the first reported TON for PhSF (3.2).