The sulfonation of chlorobenzene and p-dichlorobenzene with sulfur trioxide in nitromethane as solvent has been studied. The main reaction products are arenesulfonic anhydride and probably arenepyrosulfonic acid. With p-dichlorobenzene as substrate the amount of diary1 sulfone is undetectably small; with chlorobenzene it is < 1-mole % relative to the converted substrate. The sulfonation is of the first order with respect to the substrate and of the second order with respect to sulfur trioxide. For each mole of converted substrate two moles of sulfur trioxide are consumed. The sulfonation of p-dichlorobenzene proceeds without a primary kinetic isotope effect of hydrogen.It is suggested that the sulfonation proceeds via 1-arenonium-1-sulfonate and 1-arenonium-1-pyrosulfonate as the subsequent reactive intermediates, with the formation of the latter intermediate as the ratelimiting step. The kinetics of the formation of 4,4'-dichlorodiphenyl sulfone are compatible with a mechanism in which the species p-CIC~H&OgH is the effective sulfonylating entity. The literature on aromatic sulfonation with sulfur trioxide in aprotic solvents is critically reviewed.Extensive mechanistic studies on aromatic sulfonation have been performed with aqueous and fuming sulfuric acid as the reagent 2 . At the outset of this investigation, the number of kinetic studies pertaining to sulfur trioxide as reagent was, however, rather limited 3-8. It was therefore thought interesting to study the kinetics of aromatic sulfonation with this * Preceding paper: Rec. Trav. Chim. 87, 24 (1968).