Platinum(II)-catalyzed cyclizations forming quaternary carbon centers, using enesulfonamides, enecarbamates, or...

α-Substituted ketones or aldehydes can be synthesized from enamines by the Stork enamine reaction, named after its pioneer Gilbert Stork. Enamines are useful synthetic intermediates where the lone pair on nitrogen is in conjugation with the C=C bond. They resemble enolate ions, as the resonance forms of both species have a nucleophilic α carbon.

Aldehydes and ketones form enols, although only about 1% of the enol is present at the equilibrium for simple monocarbonyl compounds. The enol form is undetectable for acetaldehyde, present as only 1.5 × 10−4 % of acetone, and present as only 1.2% of cyclohexanone. Two kinds of regioisomeric enols are possible for unsymmetrical ketones, and their net composition is 1% at equilibrium. This instability is due to the lower bond energy of C=C than the C=O group. The additional instability of enols...

Due to their highly strained structures, epoxides can readily undergo ring-opening reactions through nucleophilic substitution, either in the presence of an acid or a base. The nucleophilic substitution reactions in the presence of acid are called acid-catalyzed ring-opening reactions, and nucleophilic substitution reactions in the presence of a base are called base-catalyzed ring-opening reactions. Epoxides undergo base-catalyzed ring-opening reactions in the presence of a strong nucleophile...

Enamine formation involves the addition of carbonyl compounds to a secondary amine through a series of reactions. The mechanism begins with the generation of carbinolamine, a nucleophilic attack followed by several proton transfer reactions. The hydroxyl group of the carbinolamine is converted into water to make a better leaving group that can push the reaction forward by eliminating a water molecule. In enamine formation, the last step involves the abstraction of a proton from the α carbon to...

Enols are a class of compounds where a hydroxyl group is attached to a carbon–carbon double bond, which implies that it is a vinyl alcohol. A carbonyl compound with an α hydrogen undergoes keto–enol tautomerism and remains in equilibrium with its tautomer, the enol form. Usually, the keto tautomer is present in a higher concentration than the enol tautomer due to the higher bond energy of C=O compared to C=C. Moreover, the direction of the keto–enol equilibrium is governed by factors like...

Primary amines react with carbonyl compounds—aldehydes and ketones—to generate imines. Imines consist of a C=N double bond and are named Schiff bases after its discoverer—the German chemist Hugo Schiff. On the other hand, secondary amines react with carbonyl compounds to give enamines. In enamines, the presence of a C=C double bond adjacent to the nitrogen atom leads to the delocalization of the lone pair.