Primary Alcohols to Acid Chlorides Acid or acyl chlorides are carboxylic acid derivatives, therefore, to convert a primary alcohol to an acid chloride, we need to first oxidize to a carboxylic acid. The carboxylic acid then can be converted to … Read more
There are a few strategies to convert alcohols to amides, and to discuss them, we first need to decide whether the alcohol is going to be the acyl or amino part of the amide: Alcohols to Amides via … Read more
The conversion of alcohols to alkynes is a two-step process. We need to first dehydrate to an alkene, and halogenate the latter to a dihalide, which can now be treated with a strong base such as sodium amide (NaNH2) to … Read more
There are a few ways of converting nitriles to amides. One of them is the sure way as it imposes no risk of your instructor counting it as invalid and taking some or all your points off. This is the … Read more
Let’s discuss a few ways of converting ketones to amides, starting with the Beckmann rearrangement. It is not the ketone that undergoes a rearrangement but rather the intermediate oxime: Oximes are prepared from the ketone under acidic conditions, … Read more
In the previous post, we discussed some strategies for converting aldehydes to ketones. So, let’s now see how we can go the other way around to convert ketones to aldehydes. Ketones to Aldehydes via Reduction of Esters One … Read more
Aldehydes and ketones have similar structures and chemical properties. The only difference is instead of the hydrogen we have another alkyl group on the carbonyl. So, how can we replace this hydrogen with an alkyl group? Aldehydes to … Read more
Primary amides can be converted to aldehydes and ketones via nitriles. So, the first thing we need here is a strong dehydrating agent such as SOCl2, P2O5, and POCl3 to convert the amide to a nitrile: Amides to Aldehydes … Read more
In the previous post, we saw that amides can be reduced to amines by LiAlH4: Let’s see how tertiary amides can be reduced to amines and aldehydes using alkyboranes. Reduction of Amides by Alkylboranes The reduction of amides … Read more
In this post, we will discuss the reduction of carboxylic acids and their derivatives, such as acid chlorides, esters, amides, and nitriles. Let’s start with carboxylic acids. Reduction of Carboxylic Acids Carboxylic acids can be converted to alcohols using … Read more
