Recently, we discovered that sodium a-toluenethio- late and methyl p-nitrobenzoate react, with loss of ni- trite ion, to form methyl p-(benzy1thio)benzoate (eq l, compound 1). The literature contains few examples of the synthesis of aromatic sulfides by nucleophilic sub- stitution upon substrates containing functional groups.2 There are only a small number of reported cases in which a nitro group has been replaced from disubsti- tuted benzenoid hydrocarbon^,^-'^ even though it ...
