Nucleophilic addition reactions
Contrary to electrophilic addition reactions observed in alkenes, the
aldehydes and ketones undergo nucleophilic addition reactions (i) Mechanism of nucleophilic addition reactions
A nucleophile attacks the electrophilic carbon atom of the polar
carbonyl group from a direction approximately perpendicular
to the plane of sp
2 hybridised orbitals of carbonyl carbon (Fig 8 2)