Quaternary ammonium salts react with sodium in boiling dioxane to give alkane and tertiary amine by reductive cleavage and olefin and tertiary amine by an accompanying Hofmann- type elimination. Tetramethylammonium halides, in addition to methane and trimethylamine, give small amounts of ethylene and ethyldimethylamine. Ethylene is also a minor component of the olefins produced from other quaternary ammonium halides having at ...
