Several diary1 and alkyl aryl sulphones are shown to undergo reductive fission by sodium amalgam and boiling ethanol to a sulphinic acid and a hydrocarbon, the latter being derived from the radical of more pronounced electron-releasing character. Dialkyl sulphones appear to be indifferent to this reagent. THERE is much evidence, summarised by Suter (" Organic Chemistry of Sulphur," John Wiley & Sons, London, 1944, p. 683), that sulphones are unaffected by the usual reducing agents. On the other hand, Mozingo, Wolf, Stanton, Harris, and Folkers ( J . Amer. Chm. SOC., 1943SOC., , 65, 1013 showed that diphenyl sulphone (and several other sulphones) , when heated with Raney nickel in ethanol, undergoes hydrogenolysis to benzene in 65% yield. Recently Balfe, Dabby, and Kenyon (J., 1951, 385) found that
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