Ester Enolates
we introduced the enolates of aldehydes and ketones (review) and looked at their reactions as C nucleophiles (review). These enolates were formed by treating the aldehyde or ketone with a suitable base…
Acid-Catalyzed Ester Hydrolysis
Water the Destroyer Imagine that water, the stuff you drink everyday, is actually a superhero with a cape, bulging muscles, and a samurai sword. Let's call him 'Water the Destroyer'…
Reaction with Primary Amines to form Imines
The reaction of aldehydes and ketones with ammonia or 1º-amines forms imine derivatives, also known as Schiff bases (compounds having a C=N function). Water is eliminated in the reaction, which is acid-catalyzed…
Nomenclature of Aldehydes & Ketones
Aldehydes and ketones contain the carbonyl group. Aldehydes are considered the most important functional group. They are often called the formyl or methanoyl group. Aldehydes derive their name from the dehydration…
Acetal Formation
Introduction It has been demonstrated that water adds rapidly to the carbonyl function of aldehydes and ketones to form geminal-diol. In a similar reaction alcohols add reversibly to aldehydes and…
Definition of Steric Effect
In general, the steric effect refers from the fact that the atoms composing molecules occupy some degree of space, and when atoms come too close together there's a rise in the energy…
What is a Nucleophile?
Nucleophiles are basically electron rich species which have the ability to donate electron pairs, as discussed earlier. Because of this electron pair donating tendency, all nucleophiles are Lewis Bases. The word ‘nucleophile’…
Nucleophilic Substitution, SN2, SN1
Let's begin by recalling a couple of reactions which occur with alkyl halides, but only work well when the alkyl halide is primary (the halogen is bonded to a carbon…
The peptide bond and primary structure of proteins
The primary structure of a protein is defined as the sequence of amino acids of which it is composed. This sequence ultimately determines the shape that the protein adopts, according to the…
Optical Activity
Optical activity is the ability of a chiral molecule to rotate the plane of plane-polairsed light, measured using a polarimeter. A simple polarimeter consists of a light source, polarising lens, sample tube…
