No arylating action occurs with aryl esters,2 instead the -0Aryl group is removed to form sulfones as follows. ... 2RS020-Alkyl + 2RMgX + 2R-Alkyl + (RS020)2Mg + MgXz ... RSO2-0-Aryl + R'MgX + RSOZR' + Aryl-OMgX (2) ... The ready alkylating action of sulfonic esters can be correlated with that of halogen esters (the alkyl halides), but it appears to be highly unique in the sense that no other alkyl esters of oxygen and sulfur acids behave in a like manner towards ...
