The lithium salt of 2,6‐difluoro‐2′‐sulfobenzophenone was conveniently synthesized in one‐pot by reacting 2,6‐difluorophenyllithium with 2‐sulfobenzoic acid cyclic anhydride in THF at −70 °C whereafter the product crystallized out of solution. A poly(arylene ether) and a poly(arylene sulfide) were prepared by polycondensation reactions to demonstrate the reactivity and efficacy of this new monomer to produce sulfonated high‐molecular weight aromatic polymers for fuel cell proton‐exchange membranes. This work demonstrated that organolithium chemistry may offer versatile and straightforward pathways to new functional monomers with fluorine atoms activated for nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions.
