The Aldol condensation is the coupling of an enolate ion with a carbonyl compound to form a β-hydroxycarbonyl, and sometimes, followed by dehydration to give a conjugated enone. A simple case is addition of an enolate to an aldehyde to afford an alcohol, thus the name aldol.
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References
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Li, J.J. (2009). Aldol condensation. In: Name Reactions. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01053-8_2
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