General Tips for Predicting Products

In the last several chapters, we saw the power of mechanisms in explaining the re-giochemistry and stereochemistry of every reaction. A solid understanding of these concepts gives us the power to predict the products of a reaction. That is the subject of this chapter. 

Generally, there are not many steps involved. You need to ask three questions whenever you are trying to determine the product of a reaction  

By studying the mechanisms of every reaction and recording them at the end of Chapter 8, you will become familiar with these three aspects of every reaction and you will find it simple to predict products. Let s see an example of how this works. 

Answer If you have already learned this reaction and if you have recorded the mechanism at the end of Chapter 8, then you will already know the regiochemistry and stereochemistry of this reaction. Let s answer all three questions  

Now that we have answered all three questions, we are ready to draw the products (don t forget to draw both enantiomers that you get from syn addition)  

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