Formation of an enolate intermediate is required for the reaction catalyzed by 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase

As depicted in the figure below, the unsymmetrical ketones can form two possible enolates: less substituted or more substituted enolates. Usually, the thermodynamic enolates are formed from the more substituted α-carbon atom, while the kinetic enolates are formed faster by deprotonation from the less substituted position. The thermodynamic enolates have lower energy, so they are more stable. But the energy required to form kinetic enolates is less.

Enolate ions are formed by the acid–base reaction of a carbonyl compound with a base. This leads to deprotonation of the α hydrogen atom, leading to a resonance-stabilized enolate ion where one of the contributing structures is an oxyanion, which imparts additional stability. Therefore, the proton on the α carbon is more acidic in nature than that of other sp3-hybridized C–H bonds but less acidic than those in O–H bonds where the negative charge in the conjugate base is localized on the oxygen...

As shown in Figure 1, under acidic conditions, the β-hydroxy ketone undergoes dehydration via an E1 elimination reaction to form an enone.

When a carbonyl compound is treated with a strong base, the α position gets deprotonated to give a resonance-stabilized intermediate called an enolate. Enolates are ambident nucleophiles because they possess two nucleophilic sites that can attack an electrophile owing to the delocalization of the negative charge between the α carbon and oxygen atoms. When the oxygen atom attacks an electrophile, it is called O-attack, whereas electrophilic attack via the α carbon is known as C-attack.
C-attack...

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...

This lesson delves into the aldol condensation catalyzed by bases, where aldols undergo dehydration to enals. As shown in Figure 1, the β-hydroxy aldehyde formed in a base-catalyzed aldol addition reaction dehydrates on heating to yield an unsaturated carbonyl product, which is commonly referred to as an enal.