Aryl sulfones are important compounds in the practice of medicinal chemistry. The functional group is found in numerous drugs, including the recently developed selective COX-2 inhibitor Vioxx. 1 The common methods for preparing these sulfones include the oxidation of sulfides 2 or the sulfonylation of arenes using aryl sulfonyl halides or aryl sulfonic acids in the presence of a strong acid catalyst. 3 Though these methods are attractive for their simplicity, they ...
