Just a general question, I thought the alpha carbon was the carbon attached to t

Question

Just a general question, I thought the alpha carbon was the carbon attached to the carbonyl or oxygen atom. Like in E2 reactions the alpha carbon was attached to the leaving group. However, for this problem which is an NMR problem, they say the alpha carbon is one away from the carbonyl and the beta is the left most carbon. Wouldn't the alpha carbon for the carbonyl be the one directly attached to it?

ermine the total number of expected signals. In this of ds protons, giving rise to five distinct signals. For each represents methyl (0.9 ppm), methylene 2 ppm). or methine nd, fre Methylene 112) Methyl (0.9) U0.91 Methine (1.2) fy each of these numbers based on proximity to oxygen and the Methylene protons (CH2) 1.2 ppm

Explanation / Answer

The alpha carbon in an organic molecule refers to the first carbon atom that is attached to a functional group, that is a carbonyl in this case. The second carbon atom is called the beta carbon, and the system continues naming in alphabetical order with Greek letters.

In the given molecule, there are two alpha carbons (one on the left and one on the right) and three beta carbons with respect to carbonyl group.

In other words, Alpha carbon could be any of the two immediate carbon atoms attached to the carbonyl group for the given molecule. It could depend on what the author/book is trying to explain.

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