Bonding aldehydes and ketones

Addition reactions occur in compounds having n electrons in carbon-carbon double (alkenes) or triple bonds (alkynes) or carbon-oxygen double bonds (aldehydes and ketones). Addition reactions are of two types electrophilic addition to alkenes and alkynes, and nucleophilic addition to aldehydes and ketones. In an addition reaction, the product contains all of the elements of the two reacting species. 

Radical initiation can thus take place with almost any carbon-carbon double bond. Aldehydes and ketones are not activated by free radicals because of the difference in electronegativity of the C and O atoms. Aldehydes and ketones are polymerized only by ionic or heterogeneous catalytic processes. 

Across C=0 bonds Aldehydes and ketones react with AT-sulfinylamines to form the [2-1-2] cycloadducts 12, which instantly undergo fragmentation to form imines and sulfur dioxide. 

Note that NaBH4 reduces aldehydes (and ketones) but not esters while L1A1H4 reduces just about all carbonyl compounds. Neither reagent reduces an isolated deuble bond. 

An ability to form carbon-carbon bonds is fundamental to organic synthesis The addition of Grignard reagents to aldehydes and ketones is one of the most frequently used reactions m synthetic organic chemistry Not only does it permit the extension of carbon chains but because the product is an alcohol a wide variety of subsequent func tional group transformations is possible... 

The most obvious way to reduce an aldehyde or a ketone to an alcohol is by hydro genation of the carbon-oxygen double bond Like the hydrogenation of alkenes the reac tion IS exothermic but exceedingly slow m the absence of a catalyst Finely divided metals such as platinum palladium nickel and ruthenium are effective catalysts for the hydrogenation of aldehydes and ketones Aldehydes yield primary alcohols... 

The structural features especially the very polar nature of the carbonyl group point clearly to the kind of chemistry we will see for aldehydes and ketones in this chapter The partially positive carbon of C=0 has carbocation character and is electrophilic The planar arrangement of its bonds make this carbon relatively uncrowded and susceptible to attack by nucleophiles Oxygen is partially negative and weakly basic... 

The carbonyl carbon of a ketone bears two electron releasing alkyl groups an aldehyde carbonyl group has only one Just as a disubstituted double bond m an alkene is more stable than a monosubstituted double bond a ketone carbonyl is more stable than an aldehyde carbonyl We 11 see later m this chapter that structural effects on the relative stability of carbonyl groups m aldehydes and ketones are an important factor m then rel ative reactivity... 

In general aldehydes and ketones have higher boiling points than alkenes because they are more polar and the dipole-dipole attractive forces between molecules are stronger But they have lower boiling points than alcohols because unlike alcohols two carbonyl groups can t form hydrogen bonds to each other... 

The carbonyl oxygen of aldehydes and ketones can form hydrogen bonds with the pro tons of OH groups This makes them more soluble m water than alkenes but less solu ble than alcohols... 

Converting aldehydes and ketones to cyanohydrins is of synthetic value for two reasons (1) a new carbon-carbon bond is formed and (2) the cyano group in the prod uct can be converted to a carboxylic acid function (CO2H) by hydrolysis (to be discussed in Section 19 12) or to an amine of the type CH2NH2 by reduction (to be discussed m Section 22 9)... 

Secondary amines are compounds of the type R2NH They add to aldehydes and ketones to form carbmolammes but their carbmolamme intermediates can dehydrate to a stable product only m the direction that leads to a carbon-carbon double bond... 

Our experience to this point has been that C—H bonds are not very acidic Com pared with most hydrocarbons however aldehydes and ketones have relatively acidic protons on their a carbon atoms pA s for enolate formation from simple aldehydes and ketones are m the 16 to 20 range... 

Aldol condensation offers an effective route to a p unsaturated aldehydes and ketones These compounds have some interesting properties that result from conjugation of the carbon-carbon double bond with the carbonyl group As shown m Figure 18 6 the rr systems of the carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen double bonds overlap to form an extended rr system that permits increased electron delocalization... 

The carbonyl group withdraws rr electron density from the double bond and both the carbonyl carbon and the p carbon are positively polarized Their greater degree of charge separation makes the dipole moments of a p unsaturated carbonyl compounds signifi cantly larger than those of comparable aldehydes and ketones... 

FIGURE 18 7 Nucleophilic addition to a p unsaturated aldehydes and ketones may take place either in a 1 2 or 1 4 manner Direct addition (1 2) occurs faster than conjugate addition (1 4) but gives a less stable product The product of 1 4 addition retains the carbon-oxygen double bond which is in general stronger than a carbon-carbon double bond... 

This suggests sp hybridization at carbon and a ct + tt carbon-oxygen double bond analogous to that of aldehydes and ketones... 

Hydrogen bonding m carboxylic acids raises their melting points and boiling points above those of comparably constituted alkanes alcohols aldehydes and ketones... 

The carbon-nitrogen triple bond of nitriles is much less reactive toward nucleophilic addition than is the carbon-oxygen double bond of aldehydes and ketones Strongly basic nucleophiles such as Gngnard reagents however do react with nitriles in a reaction that IS of synthetic value... 

You have already had considerable experience with carbanionic compounds and their applications in synthetic organic chemistry The first was acetyhde ion m Chapter 9 followed m Chapter 14 by organometallic compounds—Grignard reagents for example—that act as sources of negatively polarized carbon In Chapter 18 you learned that enolate ions—reactive intermediates generated from aldehydes and ketones—are nucleophilic and that this property can be used to advantage as a method for carbon-carbon bond formation... 

Simple olefins do not usually add well to ketenes except to ketoketenes and halogenated ketenes. Mild Lewis acids as well as bases often increase the rate of the cyclo addition. The cycloaddition of ketenes to acetylenes yields cyclobutenones. The cycloaddition of ketenes to aldehydes and ketones yields oxetanones. The reaction can also be base-cataly2ed if the reactant contains electron-poor carbonyl bonds. Optically active bases lead to chiral lactones (41—43). The dimerization of the ketene itself is the main competing reaction. This process precludes the parent compound ketene from many [2 + 2] cyclo additions. Intramolecular cycloaddition reactions of ketenes are known and have been reviewed (7). 

In the presence of base, di-Z f/-alkyl peroxides are stable, however primary and secondary diaLkyl peroxides undergo oxygen—oxygen bond cleavage, forming alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones (44,66) ... 

The tautomeric character of the pyrazolones is also illustrated by the mixture of products isolated after certain reactions. Thus alkylation normally takes place at C, but on occasion it is accompanied by alkylation on O and N. Similar problems can arise during acylation and carbamoylation reactions, which also favor C. Pyrazolones react with aldehydes and ketones at to form a carbon—carbon double bond, eg (41). Coupling takes place when pyrazolones react with diazonium salts to produce azo compounds, eg (42). 

Xanthates have been added to activated double bonds, eg, acryhc derivatives and a,P-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones (59—61) ... 

All that has been said in this section applies with equal force to the use of organo-lithium reagents in the synthesis of alcohols. Grignard reagents are one source of nucleophilic carbon organolithium reagents are another. Both have substantial carbanionic char acter in their- car bon-metal bonds and undergo the same kind of reaction with aldehydes and ketones. 

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