1 Introduction
Sulfur ylides R2S = C (R′) (R′′) (R, R′, R′′ = alkyl or aryl groups) are very reactive species with interesting applications in organic synthesis [1–4]. The juxtaposition of the keto group and carbanion in the α-keto stabilized sulfonium ylides permits a resonance delocalization of the ylidic electron density, providing additional stabilization to the ylide species. This allows the potential to act as an ambidentate ligand and thus to bond to a metal center through the carbanion (b) or the enolate oxygen (c). The enolate form (c) may assume either a cis or trans arrangement, the geometry of which will be retained upon bonding