1. Nucleophilic addition reaction is the most common reactions of aldehydes and ketones. The carbonyl carbon cames a small degree of positive charge.
2. Nucleophile such as CN- can attack the carbonyl carbon and uses its bond pair to forni a new carbon – nucleophile’ a ‘bond, at the same time two electrons from the carbon – oxygen double bond move to the most electronegative oxygen atom.
3. This results in the formation of an alkoxide ion. In this process, the hybridisation of carbon changes from sp2 to sp3
The tetrahedral intermediate can be protonated by water or an acid to form an alcohol.
