Let’s say you have 3 UV active spots in the crude material and co-spot TLC plate. One has the same Rf value as the starting mate
rial and the other 2 are very different. What could these 2 nonstarting material spots be? Use structures and words. Hint: think about the nucleophilic addition of the hydride.
2 answers:
Answer:
Answer: (1R,2S) / (1S, 2R) , (1R,2R) / (1S, 2S)
Explanation:
Sodium borohydride reduction of benzoin will give four possible stereo isomers out of which are (1R,2S) - (1S, 2R) isomers and (1R,2R) - (1S, 2S) isomers which are known as enantiomers.
In general enantiomers show single spot in the TLC as they do not show any difference in Rf value (i.e) (1R,2S) - (1S, 2R) isomers show only one spot although they are two compounds and also (1R,2R) - (1S, 2S) isomers also show one spot. That is the reason why you are observing two spots in the TLC ( of reaction mixture) other than starting materilal.
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