Carbonyl

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Image:Carbonyl-general.png

In organic chemistry, a carbonyl group is a functional group composed of a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen atom. The term carbonyl can also refer to carbon monoxide as a ligand in an inorganic or organometallic complex (e.g. nickel carbonyl); in this situation, carbon is triple-bonded to oxygen.

A carbonyl group characterizes the following types of compounds (where -CO denotes a C=O carbonyl group):


Compound Structure Formula
Aldehyde Image:Aldehyde2.png RCHO
Ketone Image:Ketone-general.png RCOR'
Carboxylic acid Image:Carboxylic-acid.png RCOOH
Ester Image:Ester.png RCOOR'
Amide Image:Amide-general.png RCONR'R"
Enone Image:Enone-general.png RCOC(R')=CR"R"'
Acyl chloride Image:Acyl-chloride.png RCOCl
Anhydride Image:Carboxylic-acid-anhydride.png (RCO)2O


Contents

Reactivity

Oxygen is more electronegative than carbon, and thus pulls electron density away from carbon to increase the bond's polarity. Therefore, the carbonyl carbon becomes electrophilic, and thus more reactive with nucleophiles.

Carbonyl groups can be reduced by reaction with hydride reagents such as NaBH4 and LiAlH4, and by organometallic reagents such as organolithium reagents and Grignard reagents.

Other important reactions include:

α,β-Unsaturated carbonyl compounds

α,β-Unsaturated carbonyl compounds are an important class of carbonyl compounds with the general structure Cβ=Cα−C=O. In these compounds the carbonyl group is conjugated with an alkene (hence the adjective unsaturated), from which they derive special properties. Examples of unsaturated carbonyls are acrolein, mesityl oxide, acrylic acid and maleic acid. Unsaturated carbonyls can be prepared in the laboratory in an aldol reaction and in the Perkin reaction. The carbonyl group, be it an aldehyde or acid, draws electrons away from the alkene and the alkene group in unsaturated carbonyls are therefore deactived towards an electrophile such as bromine or hydrochloric acid. As a general rule with unsymmetric electrophiles hydrogen attaches itself at the α position in an electrophilic addition. On the other hand, these compounds are activated towards nucleophiles in nucleophilic addition.

Spectroscopy


Other organic carbonyl compounds

Inorganic carbonyl compounds

See also

References

Further reading

cs:Karbonylová skupina da:Carbonylgruppe de:Carbonylgruppe fr:Groupement carbonyle he:קרבוניל nl:Carbonylgroep ja:カルボニル基 pl:Grupa karbonylowa pt:Carbonila ru:Карбонильная группа