c 6 aliphatic ketone isopropyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol to produce solid arylsulfonyl halides which are collected by filtration of the drowning mixtures to collect the desired arylsulfonyl halides in a normal work up the solid arylsulfonyl halides may be purified by washing or reslurrying with the same or different c 3 c 6 aliphatic ketone a mixture of c 3 c 6 aliphatic ketones lower alkanols or another inert solvent which does not react with the arylsulfonyl halides typical c 3 c 6 aliphatic ketones include 2 propanone acetone 2 butanone methyl ethyl ketone 2 pentanone 3 pentanone 3 methyl 2 butanone 4 methyl 2 pentanone etc acetone is preferred as the ketone the amount of c 3 c 6 aliphatic ketone c 3 c 6 aliphatic ketone mixture c 3 c 6 aliphatic ketone isopropyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol used for the drowning of the halosulfonation reaction solutions may vary considerably but preferably the desired ratio of the drowning medium to the volume of the chlorosulfonic acid used in the reaction varies between about 2 1 to 20 1 v v the arene substrate of the formula r h can be any aromatic compound which has an active hydrogen i e a site capable of electrophilic substitution as in a halosulfonation of for example benzene examples of such arene compounds include carbocyclic.