Reading a scheme

Start with the conditions. A strong base, an acid, a metal, a peroxide: the reagent line narrows the reaction type before you look at a single bond.

Find what changed. Compare starting material and product atom by atom: which bond formed, which left, and whether the carbon count grew.

Substitution vs. elimination vs. addition is a bookkeeping question: same number of σ bonds, fewer, or more.

Mechanism follows structure. A tertiary or benzylic center with a weak nucleophile points to a cation; a primary center with a strong nucleophile does not.

Every example here is a real reaction with a real citation. The yields are the authors’ own.

Haloform reaction

2 real reactions from the literature, on methyl ketones and α-halo ketones. Each scheme shows starting materials, conditions and products, with the yield and reference where the source reports them.

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Haloform: pinacolone (a methyl ketone) with excess; NaOH; Br2 gives pivalic acid (the carboxylic acid). 74% yield.

HaloformOrg. Synth. 1928, 8, 104
Haloform: an α-halo ketone with 2 equiv. Br2; Na2CO3 gives 9H-fluorene-2,7-dicarboxylic acid. 100% yield.

HaloformJ. Med. Chem. 2007, 49, 1055