ABSTRACT
The carbonyl of ketones, aldehydes, and acid derivative makes the a-hydrogen acidic. This hydrogen can be removed by a suitable base to form an enolate anion, which can react with alkyl halides in an alkylation reaction or with carbonyl derivatives in a condensation reaction. The thermodynamic conditions in lead to the more highly substituted enolate anion, the thermodynamic enolate anion. The term simply means that an enolate anion generated on one side of a molecule reacts with a carbonyl partner that is part of the same molecule, but distal to the enolate anion. The Reformatsky is an enolate condensation reaction of an ester with an aldehyde. It is a zinc-enolate anion rather than a lithium or sodium enolate anion, as in the usual Claisen-type condensations. The enolate anion formed by removal of the more acidic proton is the faster reaction and it is called the kinetic enolate.
