Aldehydes and Ketones

Aldehydes and ketones are carbonyl compounds, and the carbon here is in a relatively high oxidation state:     Notice that the oxidation state of the carbon decreases with the number of hydrogens connected to it. On the contrary, the … Read more

Let’s discuss an important and perhaps the most common way of converting aldehydes and ketones to amines, known as reductive amination. Before going into the details of reductive amination, let’s recall that amines are not formed by “simply” reacting aldehydes … Read more

Amides are derivatives of carboxylic acids, therefore, one strategy to convert aldehydes to amides is by first oxidizing them to carboxylic acids. Once we have the carboxylic acid, we can subject it to condensation with amines using a coupling agent … 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 to Carboxylic Acids Aldehydes can be oxidized to carboxylic acids with a variety of oxidizing agents such as chromic acid, sodium dichromate, potassium permanganate, and sodium hypochlorite.     Here is the summary of oxidizing agents we discussed in … Read more