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| Before we can talk about the
acidity of α-hydrogens, we really need to know
what we mean by an "α-hydrogen".
Greek letters are used to describe the positions adjacent to a functional group. So α are those H atoms in the groups immediately adjacent to the carbonyl group then β, γ etc. Make sure you can identify how many α-hydrogens there are in the following examples of common aldehydes and ketones.... |
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© Dr. Ian Hunt, Department of Chemistry, University of Calgary | |