Chemical and spectroscopical evidence for an electron‐transfer mechanism in the reaction of arenesulfonyl chlorides with anions

The reaction of amide and amidate anions 2 with p-toluenesulfonyl chloride (1) under different reaction conditions gives rise to the total or partial reduction of the acyl halide to p-toluenesulfinic acid (5) and acylation compounds in variable amounts depending on the crowding at the anionic center. This indicates that a Single-Electron Transfer (SET) mechanism is involved in the reactions of 1 with anions. Unpaired electron species are detected by ESR in the course of the reactions.