Chem 242 @ Dickinson

The Aldol Reaction

Today we started the aldol reaction. The concept here is that under the correct conditions it is possible to have an aldehyde deprotonated to form an enolate and this enolate can then react as a carbon nucleophile to react with a second equivalent of the aldehyde to create a new C-C bond. All steps are reversible (and in fact the equilibrium is usually against us) so the reaction is driven to completion by having the aldol product undergo an elimination reaction and physically removing water from the mix.

Hopefully, the point was made today that there are lots of competing processes taking place and that, with care, it is possible to wade through them and discard the ones that don't get us anywhere (such as protonation/deprotonation sequences).

Today I have posted PS 11 and a To-Do list for next week.

Remember -- lab reports due next week, modeling due next Friday.

posted by DCChem @ 10:12 AM