ADDITION REACTION

An 'addition reaction', in chemistry, is in its simplest terms an organic reaction where two or more molecules combine to form a larger one.
There are two main types of polar addition reactions:

★ Electrophilic addition

★ Nucleophilic addition
Other non-polar addition reactions exists as well:

★ Free radical addition
Addition reactions are limited to chemical compounds that have multiply-bonded atoms:

★ Molecules with carbon-carbon double bonds or triple bonds

★ Molecules with carbon - hetero double bonds like C=O or C=N
An addition reaction is the opposite of an elimination reaction. For instance the hydration reaction of an alkene and the dehydration of an alcohol are addition-elimination pairs.

Contents

Addition-elimination reaction

See also

References

Addition-elimination reaction

In the related 'Addition-elimination reaction' an addition reaction is followed by an elimination reaction. In the majority of reactions it involves addition of nucleophiles to carbonyl compounds in what is called nucleophilic acyl substitution ^[1].
Other addition-elimination reactions are:

★ reaction of an aliphatic amine to an imine and an aromatic amine to a Schiff base in alkylimino-de-oxo-bisubstitution

★ Hydrolysis of nitriles to carboxylic acids

See also

★ Addition reactions are applied in addition polymerization.

References

1. ''Reaction-Map of Organic Chemistry'' Murov, Steven. J. Chem. Educ. '2007', 84, 1224 Abstract