Home / Learn / Chemistry / Organic reaction mapTool #L285 (formerly #1436)

Organic reaction map: conversions between alkanes, alkenes, haloalkanes, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids and amines, with a route finder

A tappable map of 25 families of carbon compounds joined by about 60 textbook reactions, with the reagent and the name of each. Pick a start and an end and get the fewest-steps route, with an example compound at every step, other routes, and an option to keep the carbon count.

Keep it one tap away for everyday use.

Bookmark Organic reaction map?

Press Ctrl + D now. Your browser opens its own bookmark box, where you choose the name and folder.

  1. From
  2. To
  3. Route
  4. Check
Nothing is uploadedWorks offline once open

Get from A to B

    The map

    Tap a family to see what it makes (solid arrows) and what makes it (dashed). The route is the thick line. Above the gap: open chains; below: benzene rings.

    Try this

    • Go from 1° alcohol to ketone. Why can’t you oxidise a 1° alcohol straight to a ketone?
    • Go from amide to 1° amine, then tick “Keep the same number of carbons”. Why does the Hoffmann step drop out?
    • Find a way to add one carbon to a chain (look for the KCN and Grignard steps), and a way to lose one.
    • Go from nitrobenzene to phenol. Why does the route go through the diazonium salt, and why must it be ice cold?
    • Switch to Class 11: which families are left, and can you still turn an alkene into an alkyne?

    Check yourself

    What it does

    Organic chemistry at school is a web of conversions: an alkene adds HBr to give a haloalkane, the haloalkane becomes an alcohol with aqueous KOH, the alcohol is oxidised to an aldehyde or a ketone, and so on. Exam questions then ask you to “convert A into B” in two or three steps. This map puts the whole web on one screen:

    • 25 families as boxes: alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, dihalides, 1° and 2° haloalkanes, 1°, 2° and 3° alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, ethers, Grignard reagents, carboxylic acids, esters, amides, nitriles and amines, plus benzene, chlorobenzene, nitrobenzene, aniline, the diazonium salt, phenol and an azo dye.
    • About 60 reactions as arrows, each with its reagent and conditions and its name (hydration, Hoffmann bromamide degradation, Sandmeyer reaction, and so on).
    • A route finder: choose where to start and where to end, and it gives the fewest steps, with a real example compound at each step (propan-1-ol, propene, propanone …).

    Primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols and halides are kept apart on purpose: a 1° alcohol oxidises to an aldehyde and a 2° alcohol to a ketone, so treating them as one box would give wrong answers. The map fits Class 11 Chemistry: hydrocarbons and Class 12 Chemistry: haloalkanes and haloarenes; alcohols, phenols and ethers; aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids; amines. To name the compounds on a route use IUPAC namer, and to see why a haloalkane step goes fast or slow try SN1 vs SN2.

    How to use it

    1. Pick the level. Class 11 shows hydrocarbons, haloalkanes and the first benzene reactions; Class 12 shows everything.
    2. Choose From and To in the boxes at the top, or tap a family on the map and press Start here or End here. The ⇄ button swaps them.
    3. Read the route. Each step shows the change, every reagent that does it (“Or: …”), any note (for example, a mixture of products) and an example such as propan-1-ol, CH₃CH₂CH₂OH → propene, CH₃CH=CH₂. Below it are up to three other routes of the same length or one step longer.
    4. Keep the same number of carbons leaves out steps that add a carbon (KCN, Grignard with methanal or CO₂), remove one (Hoffmann, decarboxylation) or join two pieces (esters, ethers, Grignard with a ketone, coupling).
    5. On the map, the tapped family’s products have solid arrows and its starting materials dashed arrows. The route is the thick coloured line. The list under the map spells out each arrow.
    6. Check yourself asks four fresh questions: a reagent, a product, the fewest steps between two families, and what a step does to the carbon count.

    Worked example

    Convert propan-1-ol into propanone. You cannot oxidise a 1° alcohol to a ketone: oxidation stops at the aldehyde (PCC) or the acid (KMnO₄). The map finds 3 steps:

    1. 1° alcohol → alkene: conc. H₂SO₄ at 443 K (propan-1-ol → propene).
    2. Alkene → 2° alcohol: water with dilute H₂SO₄, Markovnikov addition (propene → propan-2-ol).
    3. 2° alcohol → ketone: K₂Cr₂O₇ with dilute H₂SO₄ (propan-2-ol → propanone).

    Now reverse it: ketone → aldehyde takes 4 steps (reduce to propan-2-ol, dehydrate to propene, hydroboration–oxidation to propan-1-ol, then PCC), because hydroboration is the step that puts the –OH on the end carbon.

    Tips

    • Steps that change the chain length are the ones examiners love: KCN adds a carbon, the Hoffmann reaction removes one.
    • Two reagents can give opposite results from the same alkene: HBr follows Markovnikov’s rule, HBr with a peroxide does not.
    • The diazonium salt is the busiest box on the aromatic side: from it you can reach phenol, chlorobenzene, benzene and azo dyes.

    FAQ

    Is every possible reaction here? No. It holds the main conversions met at school, so a real chemist may know shorter routes. The fewest steps here are the fewest on this map.

    Why is there no arrow from a ketone to an acid? Ketones resist oxidation; strong oxidising agents break the carbon chain, which is beyond this map.

    Why do the examples use three carbons? Propane derivatives are the smallest ones where 1° and 2° positions differ, so the examples stay true at every step.

    Where the numbers come from

    • The reactions are standard school organic chemistry (hydrocarbons, haloalkanes and haloarenes, alcohols, phenols and ethers, aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids, amines). The map, wording and examples are written by fibub, not copied from any textbook.
    • The route finder is a breadth-first search. Its fewest-step distances for all 625 pairs of families, with and without the 'keep the carbon count' option and at Class 11 level, were checked against an independent Python search over the same list of reactions.
    • Nothing you choose is stored or sent anywhere.

    Standard scientific values, such as constants, atomic weights and melting points, are facts found in every textbook; we name where ours were checked. If you are an author or publisher and want a value, a credit or a table changed or removed, tell us and we will act quickly.

    Last updated 2026-11-09.

    Change log for Organic reaction map

    1. Add #1436 Organic reaction map Details on GitHub

    Every change to fibub

    Related tools

    IUPAC namer #L49 Build a carbon chain of up to 10 carbons, tap carbons to add methyl and ethyl branches, add a double or triple bond and one functional group (–OH, –CHO, C=O, –COOH, –Cl, –Br). Get the IUPAC name with each step explained, the molecular formula and the homologous series, and test yourself on new structures. Isomer explorer #L51 Pick a molecular formula (C₄H₁₀ to C₇H₁₆, C₄H₈, C₅H₁₀, C₂H₆O to C₅H₁₂O, C₃H₆O to C₅H₁₀O, C₂H₄O₂ to C₄H₈O₂) and see every open-chain structural isomer with its IUPAC name and condensed formula. Tap two to learn whether they are chain, position or functional isomers or metamers, spot cis–trans and chiral ones, and test yourself. R/S checker #L52 Turn a carbon with four groups in 3D, see whether it is chiral, rank the groups by CIP priority with each step explained, and read R or S with the lowest-priority group put at the back and a curved arrow. Flip to the mirror image, swap two groups, build your own from 19 groups, and test yourself. SN1 vs SN2 #L53 Choose a methyl, primary, secondary, tertiary or benzylic halide, a strong or weak nucleophile, a protic or aprotic solvent and the leaving group, and see which substitution route wins and why. Compare the one-step and two-step energy profiles, watch backside attack flip the molecule (Walden inversion) or the flat carbocation give a racemic mixture in 3D, and test yourself. Glucose ring flipper #L286 See the open-chain Fischer projection of glucose, galactose, mannose or L-glucose beside its Haworth ring, tap a carbon to see where its –OH goes, flip between α and β, and watch mutarotation bring the rotation to +52.7° over a few hours. States of matter #L28 Heat or cool water, ethanol, oxygen or iron and watch the particles vibrate in place, slide past each other or fly apart. Stop at the melting and boiling points, change °C to kelvin, and race diffusion in liquids and gases.