Chloral unsymmetrical ketones

A similar trend may be seen in a study of the reaction of chloral with unsymmetrical ketones (equation S3 Table 3). Reactions were carried out in glacial acetic acid with or without added sodium acetate as catalyst. Several control experiments showed that the isomer ratios obtained were kinetic. The lack of reversibility in this reaction implies that AG is much more negative than for the simple aldol reactions discussed previously. This is presumably because of the inductive effect of the chlorines, which is known to favor hydration and other nucleophilic additions to chloral. 

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