“…While a heterolytic dissociation-recombination mechanism is improbable, a homolytic mechanism involving dissociation of 4 into 2,4dinitrophenylthiyl and benzimidazolyl radicals seemed a very viable possibility. Indeed, this seems the likely mechanism for the rearrangement of S-(arylthio)indolenines into N-(arylthio) indoles reported by Dmitrienko et al 6 This latter rearrangement takes place in low yield, and the product is accompanied by large amounts of diaryl disulfide and indole, suggestive of the formation of free radicals. This mechanism, also, would require first-order kinetics and can be excluded here.…”