Clemmensen Reaction

Name:
Clemmensen Reaction
Detailed information:
The Clemmensen method of reduction (1913) consists in refluxing a ketone with amalgamated zinc and hydrochloric acid. Acetophenone, for example, is reduced to ethylbenzene. The method is applicable to the reduction of most aromatic-aliphatic ketones to at least some aliphatic and alicyclic ketones, to the γ-keto acids obtainable by Friedel-Crafts condensations with succinic anhydride (succinolylation), and to the cyclic ketones formed by intramolecular condensation.