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.

Dakin oxidation

1 real reaction from the literature, on aromatic aldehydes. Each scheme shows starting materials, conditions and products, with the yield and reference where the source reports them.

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Dakin oxidation: o-vanillin (an aromatic aldehyde) with H2O2; NaOH, H2O; 40 - 50 °C gives 3-methoxycatechol (the phenol).

Dakin oxidationOrg. Synth. Coll. Vol. 3, p. 759