For certain nucleophiles, solvolysis reactions are classified. Solvolysis involving
water is called
hydrolysis. Related terms are
alcoholysis (
alcohols) and specifically methanolysis (
methanol), acetolysis,
ammonolysis (
ammonia), and
aminolysis (alkyl amines).
Glycolysis is however an older term for the multistep conversion of glucose to pyruvate.
Hydrolysis While solvolysis often refers to an
organic chemistry context, hydrolysis is common throughout
inorganic chemistry, where aqua
complexes of metal ions react with solvent molecules due to the
Lewis acidity of the metal center. For example, aqueous solutions of
aluminium chloride are acidic due to the
aqua-aluminium complex losing protons to water molecules, giving
hydronium ions which lowers the
pH. In organic chemistry, hydrolysis reactions often give two fragments from an initial substrate. For example, the hydrolysis of
amides give
carboxylic acids and
amines; the hydrolysis of
esters give alcohols and
carboxylic acids.
Alcoholysis An example of a solvolysis reaction is the reaction of a
triglyceride with a simple
alcohol such as
methanol or
ethanol to give the methyl or ethyl
esters of the fatty acid, as well as
glycerol. This reaction is more commonly known as a
transesterification reaction due to the exchange of the alcohol fragments.
Ammonolysis Ammonolysis refers to solvolysis by ammonia, but can also describe nucleophilic attack by ammonia more generally. Ammonia boils at −33 °C, and, as such, is rarely used as a solvent in its pure form. It is, however, readily
miscible with water, and is commonly used in the form of a saturated aqueous solution. For this reason, ammonolysis may be considered as a special case of solvolysis, as the ammonia is itself dissolved in a solvent. Despite this, the reactions are usually highly selective, due to the greater nucleophilicity of ammonia compared to water. ==See also==