Question

How is the mechanism of reduction of benzophenone to diphenylmethanol?

Answer 1

Hint: Reduction is defined as the loss of electrons. The reduction reaction is the major reaction used to reduce the double bond into single. The benzophenone is reduced to diphenylmethanol using a reducing agent like sodium borohydride.

Complete step by step answer:
The reduction reaction is one of the major classes of reaction used in organic chemistry. Reduction reaction is the opposite of oxidation reaction which is determined by the loss of oxygen from a bond, addition of hydrogen to a bond or replacement of more electronegative atoms by the less electronegative atom. The best method of reduction is hydrogenation reaction which reduces the double bonds into single.
The benzophenone is reduced to diphenylmethanol by using sodium borohydride. The sodium borohydride is used as the reducing agent.
The reaction is shown below.

In this reaction, benzophenone is converted to diphenylmethanol with the help of sodium borohydride
The sodium borohydride contains a sodium ion $N{a^ + }$ and borohydride ion $BH_4^ - $. The negative hydride acts as a nucleophile and attacks the carbonyl carbon of the benzophenone and due to this the shifting of bond takes place and the negative charge is generated on the oxygen atom. Then the negative charge of the oxygen attacks and abstract the hydrogen ion to generate hydroxide to form diphenylmethanol.


Note: There is a difference between the hydrogen ion and hydride ion. Hydrogen ion is the cation and hydride ion is the anion. The other reducing agents apart from sodium borohydride is zinc amalgam, Lithium aluminum hydride, diborane, sodium amalgam.