A name reaction (or named reaction) is a

chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemistry, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an Gibbs free energy, ...

named after its discoverer(s) or developer(s). Among the tens of thousands of organic reactions that are known, hundreds of such reactions are typically identified by the

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

. Well-known examples include the

Grignard reaction The Grignard reaction () is an organometallic chemical reaction in which, according to the classical definition, carbon alkyl, allyl, vinyl, or aryl magnesium halides (Grignard reagent) are added to the carbonyl groups of either an aldehyde or ...

, the

Sabatier reaction The Sabatier reaction or Sabatier process produces methane and water from a reaction of hydrogen with carbon dioxide at elevated temperatures (optimally 300–400 °C) and pressures (perhaps ) in the presence of a nickel catalyst. It was di ...

, the

Wittig reaction The Wittig reaction or Wittig olefination is a chemical reaction of an aldehyde or ketone with a triphenyl phosphonium ylide called a Wittig reagent. Wittig reactions are most commonly used to convert aldehydes and ketones to alkenes. Most o ...

, the

Claisen condensation The Claisen condensation is a carbon–carbon bond forming reaction that occurs between two esters or one ester and another carbonyl compound in the presence of a strong base. The reaction produces a β-keto ester or a β- diketone. It is named ...

, the Friedel–Crafts acylation, and the

Diels–Alder reaction In organic chemistry, the Diels–Alder reaction is a chemical reaction between a Conjugated system, conjugated diene and a substituted alkene, commonly termed the Diels–Alder reaction#The dienophile, dienophile, to form a substituted cyclohexe ...

. Books have been published devoted exclusively to name reactions;Alfred Hassner, C. Stumer. ''Organic syntheses based on name reactions''. Elsevier, 2002. Li, Jie Jack. ''Name Reactions: A Collection of Detailed Reaction Mechanisms''. Springer, 2003. the ''

Merck Index ''The Merck Index'' is an encyclopedia of chemical substance, chemicals, pharmaceutical drug, drugs and biomolecule, biologicals with over 10,000 monographs on single substances or groups of related chemical compound, compounds published online ...

'', a chemical encyclopedia, also includes an appendix on name reactions. As organic chemistry developed during the 20th century, chemists started associating synthetically useful reactions with the names of their discoverers or developers. In many cases, the name is merely a mnemonic. Some reactions such as the

Pummerer rearrangement The Pummerer rearrangement is an organic reaction whereby an alkyl sulfoxide rearranges to an α- acyloxy–thioether (monothioacetal-ester) in the presence of acetic anhydride. The stoichiometry of the reaction is: :RS(O)CHR'2 + Ac2O → ...

, the

Pinnick oxidation The Pinnick oxidation is an organic reaction by which aldehydes can be oxidized into their corresponding carboxylic acids using sodium chlorite (NaClO2) under mild acidic conditions. It was originally developed by Lindgren and Nilsson. The typical ...

and the

Birch reduction The Birch reduction or Metal-Ammonia reduction is an organic reaction that is used to convert arenes to Cyclohexa-1,4-diene, 1,4-cyclohexadienes. The reaction is named after the Australian chemist Arthur Birch (organic chemist), Arthur Birch and i ...

are named for people other than their discoverers, but this situation is not common. Although systematic approaches for naming reactions based on the reaction mechanism or the overall transformation exist, such as the IUPAC nomenclature for organic chemical transformations, these technically-descriptive names are often unwieldy or not specific enough, so people names are often more practical for efficient communication.

References

{{Reflist Eponyms

See also

References