The sulfone is an important organic structural motif in the total synthesis of natural products and biologically active compounds. 1 The sulfonyl group can facilitate the deprotonation of a neighboring carbon atom and the corresponding carbanion can then be used for a variety of transformations. Afterwards, the auxiliary sulfonyl group can be easily removed by reductive desulfonylation. 1b Although several synthetic routes to arylmethylsulfones have been ...