- Joined
- Feb 18, 2011
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- 33
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For the Aldol Condensation reaction, I know you treat an Aldehyde or Ketone with a moderately strong base and water to form an enolate. This enolate can then react as a nucleophile with the electrophilic carbon of the parent ketone / aldehyde.
My question though is regarding the dehydration aspect of this reaction. In TPR, they explain dehydration occurs in the presence of strong acid (not base) and heat. This results in hydrolysis. This doesn't make sense to me since this is essentially an elimination reaction and elimination reactions require a weak / strong base...
And not only do they mention that, in some of their examples, they treat the beta-hydroxy aldehyde/ketone with NH4Cl (for the dehydration step). I was wondering if these were errors, and if not ...how exactly do they fit in the mechanism.
Thanks.
My question though is regarding the dehydration aspect of this reaction. In TPR, they explain dehydration occurs in the presence of strong acid (not base) and heat. This results in hydrolysis. This doesn't make sense to me since this is essentially an elimination reaction and elimination reactions require a weak / strong base...
And not only do they mention that, in some of their examples, they treat the beta-hydroxy aldehyde/ketone with NH4Cl (for the dehydration step). I was wondering if these were errors, and if not ...how exactly do they fit in the mechanism.
Thanks.