Reducing Acid Halides with LiAlH4

Acid halides can be reduced to primary alcohols with lithium aluminum hydride, or LiAlH4, a strong reducing agent. The reaction starts when a hydride ion, which acts as a nucleophile, attacks the carbonyl carbon of the acid halide. This forms a tetrahedral intermediate.

The carbonyl group then fo...

Acid halides react with strong reducing agents like lithium aluminum hydride to form primary alcohols.

This is a nucleophilic substitution reaction in which the acid halide is first converted into an aldehyde and then into a primary alcohol. So, the reaction requires two equivalents of the reducing agent.

The mechanism begins with ...