Rearrangement reaction

A rearrangement reaction is a broad class of organic reactions where the carbon skeleton of a molecule is rearranged to give a structural isomer of the original molecule. Often a substituent moves from one atom to another atom in the same molecule. In the example below the substituent R moves from carbon atom C¹ to C².

RC¹-C²-C³ → C¹-RC²-C³

Rearrangement reactions are divided in:

• 1,2-rearrangements
• electrocyclic rearrangements
• olefin metathesis