Degenerate reaction

A degenerate reaction is a chemical reaction in which the starting materials and products are indistinguishable.

A general equation for a degenerate substitution reaction is: AX + A → A + AX. The two atoms A are individually different, but belong to the same element .

Examples:

• Hydrogen exchange at high temperature: H ₂ + H → H + H ₂
• degenerate Cope rearrangement of 1,5-hexadiene
• in malonic ester synthesis , sodium ethoxide is used as the base when diethyl malonate is used. As a side reaction, the indistinguishable ethanolate groups are therefore quickly exchanged in the sense of a transesterification .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Paetzold: Chemistry: an introduction . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-020268-7 , pp. 295 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2016061830914 .
2. ↑ Eberhard Breitmaier, Günther Jung: Organic chemistry: Basics, compound classes, reactions, concepts, molecular structure, natural substances . 6., revised. Edition Thieme, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-13-541506-2 , p. 452 .