In the last five chapters, we have seen a variety of reaction mechanisms - nucleophilic substitutions, phosphoryl transfers, carbonyl additions, and acyl substitutions - in which bonds were broken and...In the last five chapters, we have seen a variety of reaction mechanisms - nucleophilic substitutions, phosphoryl transfers, carbonyl additions, and acyl substitutions - in which bonds were broken and new bonds were formed. In this chapter, the focus will be on two very important carbon-carbon bond-forming / bond breaking events known as 'aldol' and 'Claisen' reactions, in which stabilized carbanions act as nucleophiles or leaving groups.
