Evidence for Hypervalent Intermediate in Aminolysis Reaction of Ethylbenzene Sulfinate

Nucleophilic substitution reactions of sulfinic acid deriva- tives are similar to those of carboxylic acid derivatives. These reactions are well known to proceed through a concerted mechanism or a stepwise mechanism with a trigonal bipyra- midal pentacoordinated intermediate(sulfurane) as shown in scheme 1. 1-4