ring closure at the 8-position. 2-(Phenylsulfanyl)-1-azulenyl p-tolyl sulfone (2b) suffered from desulfonylation to form 2-phenylsulfanylazulene (4). The Suzuki couplingreaction of 2-iodo-1-azulenyl p-tolyl sulfone (2d) with arylboronicacids followed by desulfonylation efficiently gave 2-arylazulenes 10.