It has been found that the reaction of diphenylmercury with an equimolar amount of thio- or dithio acids gave the corresponding phenylmercury thio- (1) or dithiocarboxylates (2), quantitatively, which further react with thio- or dithio acids to give mercury bis (thio-) (3) or bis(dithiocarboxylates) (4). The phenylmercury dithio salts (2) were found to be the very useful thioacylating agents for primary and secondary amines. The reaction of mercury bis(thiocarboxylates) (3) with

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... acids gave the unsymmetrical thio- and dithiocarboxylic acid mercury salts [RC(O)SHgS(S)CR′]j (5) in good yields.