Why does the nucleophilic addition of a cyanide ion to an aldehyde form a racemic mixture?
Because the plane of the C=O bond in an aldehyde is flat, and so the nucleophilic attack of CN- onto the C can occur above or below the plane of the molecule, producing two different stereoisomers of a 2-hydroxyalkane molecule with 50/50 split (as both structures are equally thermodynamically favourable). This produces a racemic mixture
SA
Related Chemistry A Level answers
All answers ▸What is a buffer, and how does it respond to the addition of acid or alkali?
Periodicity shows a fairly smooth increasing trend across a period for ionisation energy. However, between groups 2 & 3 and groups 5 & 6, the trend doesn't appear to be followed. Using your knowledge of chemistry, explain why the trend isn't followed here
Why do first ionisation energies decrease down a group but increase across a period?
How do you convert between different SI units, for example, nmol to mmol?