Adduct

See also adduction, one of the anatomical terms of motion.

An adduct (from the Latin adductus, "drawn toward") is a product of a direct addition of two or more distinct molecules, resulting in a single reaction product containing all atoms of all components. The resultant is considered a distinct molecular species. Examples include the adduct between hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate to give sodium percarbonate, and the addition of sodium bisulfite to an aldehyde to give a sulfonate.

Adducts often form between Lewis acids and Lewis bases. A good example would be the formation of adducts between the Lewis acid borane and the oxygen atom in the Lewis bases, tetrahydrofuran (THF): BH₃•O(CH₂)₄ or diethyl ether: BH₃•O(CH₃CH₂)₂.

<gallery caption="Ball and stick diagram of the Lewis adduct between BH₃ and THF" widths="100px" heights="100px" perrow="1">Image:Tetrahydrofuran-3D-balls.png|THF moleculeImage:Borane-3D-balls.png|BH₃ moleculeImage:Borane-THF-adduct-3D-balls.png|Lewis adduct between BH₃ and THF,</gallery>

Compounds or mixtures that cannot form an adduct because of steric hindrance are called frustrated Lewis pairs.

Adducts are not necessarily molecular in...
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