A catalytic, chemoselective and environmentally friendly procedure for the oxidation of sulfides is described. A wide range of aliphatic or aromatic sulfides were successfully oxidized to the corresponding sulfoxides using NaNO(2), Al(HSO(4))(3) and a catalytic amount of KBr or NaBr in the presence of wet SiO(2) (50% w/w) in CH(3)CN under heterogeneous conditions in moderate to high yields.
