what is wolf kishner reduction reaction?

Hi Akshay!

The Wolff Kishner reduction reaction is a method in which a carbonyl compound (aldehyde or a ketone) is reduced to a hydrocarbon. In this method, the carbonyl compound is heated with a mixture of hydrazine and strong base such as potassium hydroxide or potassium tert-butoxide at a temperature of 453-473 K in ethylene glycol solvent.

During this reduction reaction, the aldehyde or ketone is first treated with hydrazine to form the corresponding hydrazone. On reaction with a strong base, the hydrazone gets converted to a hydrocarbon. The following set of reaction sum up the entire Wolff Kishner reduction reaction.

It must be noted that the hydrocarbon formed in this reaction have the same number of carbon atoms as that of the parent aldehyde or ketone.

I hope now you must have understood what Wolff Kishner reduction reaction is.

All the best!!