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What is cyclic acetal?

Answer 1

A cyclic acetal is formed from the reaction of an aldehyde with a diol. You see these as protecting groups in carbonyl chemistry.

Suppose you had an acid catalyst. Then you have the following mechanism:

1. With the aldehyde already protonated by the hydronium, the diol is a good enough nucleophile to backside-attack the carbonyl carbon.
2. Proton transfer Pt1.
3. Proton transfer Pt2.
4. Tetrahedral collapse.
5. INTRAmolecular backside-attack of the carbonyl carbon (faster than INTERmolecular acid/base reaction).
6. Regeneration of the acid catalyst.

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Answer 2

Easton Jones

A cyclic acetal is a chemical compound containing a cyclic structure formed by the reaction between a carbonyl compound and diol, resulting in the formation of an acetal linkage.

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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.