Elsevier R&D Solutions Exploring a chemical reaction
Exploring a chemical reaction Use Ask Reaxys to explore reactions, substances and concepts Learning objectives Use Ask Reaxys as an entry point to browse content Recognize how different interpretations of a query lead to different results Understand differences between record types Use Filters to limit results Search question Esterification of benzoic acid was an example today in lecture for an acid catalyzed reaction with alcohols. What else can I learn about esterification?
1. A good place to start is to search a phrase using Ask Reaxys. The first interpretation recognizes esterification as a concept and benzoic acid as a compound and links the terms together with the preposition of to deliver reaction records. Ask Reaxys interprets the phrase in different ways and delivers corresponding result sets. The second interpretation ignores the preposition of and retrieves bibliographic records containing the keywords esterification and benzoic acid. The breadcrumb trail at the top of the screen tracks activity during a session, laying out a means to navigate back to performed searches or result sets. You can always see these interpretations by clicking Show Query in the breadcrumb trail bar.
2. 86 reaction records are retrieved. The first reaction is with benzyl alcohol. Reaction details such as yield, reagents, solvent and time are excerpted from the listed citations for easy comparison. Clicking each structure gives substance identification data and links to its substance record. Each record lists citations with the target reaction. 3. Filters classify the resulting records according to relevant categories. The Reagent/Catalyst filter shows the number of records reporting the use of specific substances as a catalyst. The majority of hit reaction records use triphenylphosphine and diethylazodicarboxylate, and not the acid catalysts mentioned in lecture. What are these substances?
4. Use Ask Reaxys to learn more about each substance. 5. Ask Reaxys recognizes the word as a compound and delivers 14 substance records. 14 records for 1 substance? Ask Reaxys performs an exact search and delivers information on salts, isotopes, stereoisomers, mixtures and radicals of a substance. The first three substances listed differ in the way authors described the stereochemistry about the N=N bond. Each substance record is linked to corresponding property data, as well as references to the uses or applications of the substance.
Filters show that the majority of records include triphenylphosphine as a reagent or catalyst. With so many records listing these two specific reagents, these might be involved in a specific reaction. 6. Limit the retrieved records to those that include triphenylphosphine.
Reaxys also indexes Named Reactions in the Reaction Type field. Many here are named Mitsunobu. The Mitsunobu reaction must be a chemical transformation that can result in the esterification of an acid. What other information is there on Mitsunobu reactions? 7. Perform another search in Ask Reaxys.
8. Scan briefly through the first few of the 179,643 reactions retrieved. Some records involve esterification, but others involve formation of epoxides and amides. Mitsunobu reactions are quite general.
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