Sulfonylation of Organometallic Reagents with Arenesulfonyl Fluorides: A Simple One-Step Synthesis of Sulfones

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/jo00028a053

Sulfonylation of organometallic reagents was accomplished with arenesulfonyl fluorides to provide a wide variety of alkylaryl- and diaryl sulfones.Organolithium and diorganocopper lithium reagents react smoothly with arenesulfonyl fluorides to give sulfones in high yields.Alkyl Grignard reagents often lead to mixtures of monosulfonylated and disulfonylated products.However, allylmagnesium chloride and phenylmagnesium chloride provide the corresponding sulfones in excellent yields.Organocopper reagents were also found to yield sulfones upon treatment with arenesulfonyl fluorides.By utilizing this methodology, synthetically useful alkyl, (trimethylsilyl)methyl, and allyl sulfones are easily prepared in high yields.