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What aspect of the structure of the alkene does ozonolysis not tell you?

Answer 1

Christian Anderson

Ozonolysis does not tell you about any stereochemistry there may have been in the original alkene.

Reductive ozonolysis converts an alkene into a pair of carbonyl compounds.

If the R groups are different, we can have cis/trans or E/Z stereochemistry.

If R₂ and R₄ are the groups with higher priority, 1 is a Z alkene. 2 is an E alkene.

But both give the same ozonolysis products.

You cannot distinguish between cis-but-2-ene and trans-but-2-ene by reductive ozonolysis.

They both give acetaldehyde as the only ozonolysis product.

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Answer 2

Skylar Alexander

Ozonolysis of an alkene does not provide information about the stereochemistry of the resulting ozonide.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.