Chemical Properties of Aldehydes and Ketones

Having established, in 12.7, exactly WHY the carbonyl carbon of an aldehyde or ketone is chemically reactive (its electrophilic polarity), the chapter now works systematically through the actual chemistry that polarity produces. Four numbered subsections follow: 12.8.1 gives simple laboratory tests that distinguish aldehydes from ketones (and from each other) using their differing ease of oxidation; 12.8.2, by far the largest subsection, works through the full range of nucleophilic addition (and addition-elimination) reactions the carbonyl group undergoes; 12.8.3 covers oxidation and reduction reactions of the carbonyl group itself; and 12.8.4 covers electrophilic substitution reactions specific to …