To account for the reaction of ketones in the Willgerodt reaction, King and McMillan2 proposed the following sequence of steps: ketone+ thioketone--+ mercaptan+ olefin--+ mercaptan-+ etc. To show that these substances could act as intermediates in the reaction, mercaptans and olefins were successfully converted to the corresponding amides by the Willgerodt procedure. However, no thioketone has been shown to un-dergo a R'illgerodt ...
