Source: Vy M. Dong and Daniel Kim, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA

Controlling the reactivity and selectivity during the synthesis of a molecule is very important criteria for chemists. This has led to the development of many reagents that allow chemists to pick and choose reagents suitable for a given task. Quite often, a balance between reactivity and selectivity needs to be achieved. This experiment will use IR spectroscopy to monitor the reaction and to understand the reactivity of carbonyl compounds as well as the reactivity of hydride-reducing reagents.