Posts Tagged ‘O Lp’

Spotting the unexpected. The hydration of formaldehyde.

Monday, March 12th, 2012

In my previous post I speculated why bis(trifluoromethyl) ketone tends to fully form a hydrate when dissolved in water, but acetone does not. Here I turn to asking why formaldehyde is also 80% converted to methanediol in water? Could it be that again, the diol is somehow preferentially stabilised compared to the carbonyl precursor and if so, why?

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Spotting the unexpected. The trifluoromeric effect in the hydration of the carbonyl group.

Friday, March 9th, 2012

The equilibrium for the hydration of a ketone to form a gem-diol hydrate is known to be highly sensitive to substituents. Consider the two equilibria:

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