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organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clay ...
, an aldol describes a structural motif consisting of a 3- hydroxy ketone or 3-hydroxy
aldehyde In organic chemistry, an aldehyde () is an organic compound containing a functional group with the structure . The functional group itself (without the "R" side chain) can be referred to as an aldehyde but can also be classified as a formyl group ...
. Aldols are usually the product of aldol addition. When used alone, the term "aldol" may refer to 3-hydroxybutanal.


Stereochemistry

Despite having only two functional groups, many aldols can have complicated structures arising from the relative positions of the OH group and the substituent between it and the carbonyl. Controlling reactions in order to favor the formation of one of these isomers is of great interest in the area of
asymmetric synthesis Enantioselective synthesis, also called asymmetric synthesis, is a form of chemical synthesis. It is defined by IUPAC as "a chemical reaction (or reaction sequence) in which one or more new elements of chirality are formed in a substrate molecu ...
.


Reactions

The chemistry of aldols is dominated by one reaction, dehydration: :RC(O)CH2CH(OH)R' → RC(O)CH=CHR' + H2O Hydroxypivaldehyde is a rare example of a relatively robust aldol.


References

Aldehydes   {{organic-chemistry-stub