Question

Give reason why aldehydes and ketones undergo nucleophilic addition reaction

Answer 1

In both aldehydes and ketones (carbonyl grop), C atom is double bonded with the O atom.

Since the electronegativity of O is more than the C atom, it pulls the shared pair of electron more towards itself.

Due to which C atom acquires partial +ve charge and O atom acquires partial -ve charge.

Hence nucleophile can easily attack on the C atom to neutralize the +ve charge and makes it stable.

Also pie bond (double bond) is being converted into a single bond (sigma), due to which it becomes more stable.