Condensations of aldehydes and ketones the aldol condensation reaction

1 Condensations of aldehydes and ketones the aldol condensation reaction 

The aldol reaction is a base-catalysed dimerisation reaction for all aldehydes (e.g. RCH2CHO) and ketones (e.g. RCOCH3) with a-hydrogens. 

Notice that all three steps are reversible (for a discussion of equilibria, see Section 4.9.1.1) 

Reaction of propanone (CH3COCH3), under the same conditions, forms CH3C0CH2C(0H) (CH3)2 

A conjugated compound has alternating single and double bonds (Section 1.6.3) 

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