Electrophilicity and nucleophilicity of commonly used aldehydes

The present approach for determining the electrophilicity (E) and nucleophilicity (N) of aldehydes includes a kinetic study of KMNO4 oxidation and NaBH4 reduction of aldehydes. A transition state analysis of the KMNO4 promoted aldehyde oxidation reaction has been performed, which shows a very good correlation with experimental results. The validity of the experimental method has been tested using the experimental activation parameters of the two reactions. The utility of the present approach is further demonstrated by the theoretical versus experimental relationship, which provides easy access to E and N values for various aldehydes and offers an at-a-glance assessment of the chemical reactivity of aldehydes in various reactions.