Acyl Chlorides

Introduction:
You may not have heard of them, but acyl chlorides have been in many of your organic chemistry equations already.

Acyl chlorides are derivatives of carboxylic acid, and among those, they are the most reactive.
Derivatives: This group of compounds also contains a carbonyl group, but now there is an electronegative atom (oxygen, nitrogen, or a halogen) attached to the carbonyl carbon. This difference in structure leads to a major change in reactivity
http://chemistry2.csudh.edu/rpendarvis/carboxder.html

Acyl chlorides contain chlorine atoms, which are electron-withdrawing, thus the carboxyl carbon atom is more positively charged than in other derivatives.

Thus acyl chlorides are very reactive towards nucleophilic agents.(explained further below)



SiO

By the end of this lesson package, you should be able to:

i) determine and define acyl chlorides
ii) identify the functional group of acyl chlorides
iii) determine how acyl chlorides are formed
iv) show why melting and boiling points are lower than carboxylic acids
v) determine that hydrolysis of acyl chlorides produces carboxylic acids
vi) show that amides are produced from acyl chlorides through reaction with ammonia
vii) identify alcoholysis
viii) identify reaction with amines