Wittig Reaction – conversion of ketones/aldehydes to alkenes
Description: The Wittig reaction is a useful way of forming alkenes from phosphorus ylides (“Wittig Reagents”) and aldehydes or ketones.
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When I do example 5, my product has one less carbon than the answer listed. What may I be doing wrong?
My mistake. Fixed.
The last is wrong !!!
It has been fixed.
Are there Wittig reagents that are more commonly used? How do you know what reagent to use? I have a lot of problems where we’re given the final product and then have to show how they can be synthesized, but I’m really confused about how to figure out which reagents is appropriate to use.
What solution should this be done in?
Isn’t the final Alkene confirmation dependent on the R-groups of the Ylide, Cis from an unstablized ylide and trans from the semi/fully stabilized ylide?
That is correct. I didn’t go into a lot of detail here because it’s typically not covered deeply. For more information I highly recommend Myers’ notes. http://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/myers/files/19-stereoselective_olefination_reactions.pdf