Valency changes of sulphur in the mass spectra of sulphones

The aryl substituent has been shown to affect the fragmentation and abundance of skeletal rearrangement ions in the spectra of aryl sulphonyl chlorides and sulphonic acids. The spectra of 2-hydroxy and 2-chloroethyl aryl sulphones contain [aryl SO]⁺ ions, suggesting that alkyl migration has competed successfully with aryl migration to the electron deficient oxygen atom.