Alpha carbon chemistry
Contents
The carbon that is one carbon away from an aldehyde or ketone group is the alpha carbon. The deceptively innocuous hydrogens bonded to the alpha carbon can be involved in some classic organic chemistry reactions such as aldol condensations. We will be learning about the formation of enolate anions, and how they can be used in Aldol condensations to build complex organic molecules.
In this tutorial, Sal and Jay show you how to form enolate anions from aldehydes and ketones.
In this tutorial, Sal and Jay show you the mechanism of the aldol condensation and how to predict the products of aldol reactions.