Science, Vol.369, No.6504, 1-3, 2020
Response to Comment on "Activation of methane to CH3+: A selective industrial route to methanesulfonic acid"
Roytman and Singleton argue that our proposed electrophilic mechanism for the sulfonation of methane in superacid conditions is "not plausible." We clarify certain terms that might have caused misinterpretation of our proposed mechanism and supplement the discussion. We reaffirm that an electrophilic mechanism may be operative under our reaction conditions.