Hey everyone, I am wondering what people feel are the 10 most crucial name reactions. I have been wanting to focus on better understanding name
reactions. I have been reading on the Aldol addition/condensation reactions and have considered doing a couple of the reactions I have discovered.
Thanks
Syndraculic acid69 - 4-4-2020 at 20:17
Grignard rxnTexium - 4-4-2020 at 20:20
I don’t think that there’s an objective list, but here’s 10 good ones off the top of my head that you should look into, in no particular order:
There’s also a whole host of palladium catalyzed couplings that are very important and useful, but not very practical for the amateur. Some
important variants:
Suzuki Coupling, Heck Coupling, Sonogashira Coupling, Stille Coupling j_sum1 - 4-4-2020 at 21:16
Birch reduction?
Fischer esterification?draculic acid69 - 4-4-2020 at 22:00
Excellent suggestions guys.these are the most common rxns one usually encounters in an amateur lab setting.Sulaiman - 4-4-2020 at 23:11
Haber–Bosch process and Ostwald process
not sure if they qualify as named reactions, but they are super important. Sigmatropic - 4-4-2020 at 23:15
Based on FMO theory there are only 9 reactions. Perhaps 12 if you count the pericyclic ones as separate reactions. All you need to know.
Scrap that, there are only 9 reactions.
[Edited on 5-4-2020 by Sigmatropic]Metacelsus - 5-4-2020 at 05:34
Only 9 reactions?
I think you're forgetting all the radical reactions. (Or possibly remembering radical reactions, and forgetting photochemical ones.)
Let's make a list. I'll go over my notes from undergrad, and count reverse reactions as the same reaction.
Non-radical, non-pericyclic:
Concerted nucleophilic additions (eg SN2, or addition to an alkene)
Heterolysis (carbocation formation)
Pericyclic (could be non-photochemical or photochemical, so x2):
Cycloadditions (eg Diels-Alder)
Electrocyclic rearrangement (eg cyclobutene <-> butadiene)
Sigmatropic (eg Cope or Claisen)
Group transfer (eg ene reaction)
Radical:
Bond homolysis (and reverse, radical recombination)
Abstraction
Single-electron transfer
So, that's already 13 classes of reactions just from my undergrad O-chem notes.
And there are some more weird things which I'm not sure how to classify, like the Bergman cyclization. This list probably isn't complete.
[Edited on 2020-4-5 by Metacelsus]clearly_not_atara - 5-4-2020 at 05:37
zts's list is pretty good, but I would suggest some changes:
- replace Claisen with Knoevenagel condensation
- drop Hofmann and Mannich rxns
- add Huisgen "click" cycloaddition
- honestly not sure if Grignard should be listed since everyone seems to use lithium these days
- add Swern oxidation (with its many variations)
- add Mitsunobu reaction
- would probably choose Heck as the primary representative of Pd-catalyzed couplings
I'm not sure if there's a general term for alkyne or allene-mediated annulation but that's a pretty important technique today also. Syn the Sizer - 5-4-2020 at 09:49
Haber–Bosch process and Ostwald process
not sure if they qualify as named reactions, but they are super important.
I didn't think the Aldol reaction was a name reaction but when I googled name reactions it shows up on lists. I always though name reactions were
named after the Chemist. I have found lists with tons of reactions and it gets overwhelming so that's why I came here to ask.
Thanks everyone for the replies.DrIronic101 - 7-4-2020 at 12:30
Friedel-Crafts Acylation
Henry Reaction
Grignard Reaction
Knoelvagel Condensation
Fisher Esterification
Williamson Ether Synthesis
Reductive Amination (not technically a named one but still super important)
To name a few.mackolol - 8-4-2020 at 01:50
Reimer - Tiemann reaction is very useful
Meerwein - Ponndorf - Verley reduction is the most basic reaction when you want to reduce ketone to alcohol or vice wersa
These are the two that come to my mind at the moment.rockyit98 - 8-4-2020 at 04:13
Hofmann rearrangementSyn the Sizer - 8-4-2020 at 21:56
Awesome. Lots to look into and study, thanks again everyone.
