An attempt was made to study near identity replacements of one isopropyl arenesulfonate with another arenesulfonate anion. Such results would have paralleled the analogous studies of methyl transfers between arenesulfonates, 2 except with an alkyl group more able to tolerate a positive charge in the transition state. This attempt, however, failed. The isopropyl esters in tetrahydrothiophene 1, l-dioxide (sulfolane) are not stable enough to ...
