Abstract

The name of Conrad Willgerodt is associated with a group of closely related reactions which have a common feature the conversion of a carbonyl compound into an amide with the same number of carbon atoms. The original process involved the reaction of an appropriately substituted alkyl aryl ketone with an aqueous solution of yellow ammonium polysulfide at an elevated temperature to form an aryl-substituted aliphatic acid amide, together with a smaller amount of the corresponding ammonium salt of the carboxylic acid. The Kindler variation promises to be more useful. It consists of heating a ketone with approximately equimolecular amounts of sulfur and dry amine.