Organic reaction

The number of possible organic reactions is basically infinite. However, certain general patterns are observed that can be used to describe many common or useful reactions. Each reaction has a stepwise mechanism[?] that says how it happens, although this detailed description of steps is not always clear from a list of reactants alone.

Organic reactions can be organized into several basic types:

1. Addition reactions[?] (including hydrogenation reactions[?])
2. Elimination reactions
3. Substitution reactions[?]
4. Oxidation reactions[?]
5. Condensation reactions
6. Reduction reaction[?]
7. Polymerization reactions[?]
8. Rearrangement reactions[?]

Some reactions fit into more than one category. For example, some substitution reactions follow an addition elimination pathway.

Here are some common reactions that you may run into in a college organic chemistry course: addition of HX to an alkene, halogen addition reaction, halohydrin formation reaction, oxymercuration reaction, hydroboration-oxidation reaction, hydrooxylation reaction[?], ozonolysis reaction[?], nucleophilic substitution, halogenation of an alkyl[?], hydration and dehydration.

Here is a series of reactions that a chemist can perform to change molecules in a defined way: Beckmann rearrangement, Friedel-Craft-Alkylation, Diels-Alder reaction, Pinner reaction, Sharpless epoxidation, Sharpless bishydroxylation, Swern oxidation

As seen here, specific reactions are sometimes named after the chemist who developed them.