Carbon dioxide, when allowed to react with sodium allylbenzene in liquid ammonia, gave only a 2% yield of carboxylic acids, since the sodium derivative was decomposed by the ammonium carbamate which formed rapidly. However, a sufficient quantity of the carboxylic acids was obtained for separation and analysis. The mixture was treated with hot alkali to rearrange the liquid phenylvinylacetic acid into the more easily handled solid methyltropic ...
