Conversion of cyclic vinyl sulfones to transposed vinyl phosphonates.

Functionalized cyclic vinyl sulfones were directly converted to the "polarity reversed" vinyl phosphonates through an efficient one pot procedure. Ozonolysis of these vinyl sulfones and vinyl phosphonates furnish complementary sets of termini-differentiated ester-aldehydes. This strategy has been applied for preparation of segments needed for the synthesis of Aplyronine A. The scope and limitations of this transformation were defined.