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.