Cyanohydrin Formation and Reactions

[@VictortheOrganicChemistryTutor]

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[@exploring197]

Thanks for the mechanism.

[@iolandatesta7748]

My textbook talks about the synthesis of cyanohydrins but not how they can be used so thanks for pointing that out, i'm glad i learnt about them

[@VictortheOrganicChemistryTutor]

Yeah, that's unfortunately a common occurrence. There are many topics in organic chemistry that we cover and then never make any connections with the rest of the course or why those topics are even relevant. Strecker synthesis, carbohydrate elongation, plus the carboxylic acid synthesis, and aminoalcohol synthesis I've mentioned in the video, plus many others synthetic approaches stem from this very reaction, but textbooks never bother bringing it up making it sound like yet another reaction you need to know for whatever reason.

[@kingwhalebo4446]

I've heard that electron transfer occurs faster than acid based reactions but I'm not sure.

[@VictortheOrganicChemistryTutor]

"Electron transfer" is a rather specific term, and I suspect what you mean by that is now that it actually is. We can count reactions in a typical organic chemistry course that have electron transfers on fingers of one hand, and we don't go over those mechanisms... and yes, they can be quite fast depending on a reaction. Electron transfers (typically, single electron transfer steps) occur when an electron leaves one species and travels to a completely different species. We see those in reactions involving metals or electrochemical processes. Within the scope of a sophomore organic chemistry, reactions that have electron transfers are the formation of the organometallic reagents, Clemmensen reduction, Birch reduction, and a few other processes. Moving electrons like what we do with curved arrows for normal reactions is not an electron transfer step.