Selected Carbonyl Reactions of 2-Thiophenealdehyde

The preparation of a large variety of compounds should be possible if 2-thiophenealdehyde is capable of undergoing the typical carbonyl reactions characteristic of aromatic aldehydes such as the Cannizzaro, Crossed Cannizzaro, Perkin and Claisen-Schmidt reactions. Although a survey of the literature indicated that certain reactions have been briefly investigated, the work has not been sufficiently extensive to draw valid conclusions. With reference to the carbonyl reactions to be studied, the work reported in the literature has been rather inconclusive. As a result, the fact that 2-thiophenealdehyde is able to undergo typical carbonyl reactions has not been definitely established. This thesis therefore has as its goal (1) to definitely establish whether 2-thiophenealdehyde undergoes certain typical carbonyl reactions and (2) to determine if reasonable yields can be obtained from these reactions