Michael Addition
The quarrel to claim one of organic chemistry’s most famous reactions
Michael addition is one of the most well known reactions in organic synthesis. It is an immeasurably useful carbon–carbon bond-forming reaction involving the addition of a carbon nucleophile to an unsaturated carbonyl compound. Today, Michael additions are commonplace and Michael donors, acceptors and adducts are part of our shared vocabulary. Yet the story of its discovery deserves to be equally well known, because it marks a moment when mechanism first mattered to chemists.