Chemical Sciences: A Manual for CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test for Lectureship and JRF/McLafferty rearrangement

The McLafferty rearrangement is a reaction observed in mass spectrometry. It is sometimes found that a molecule containing a keto-group undergoes β-cleavage, with the gain of the γ-hydrogen atom. This rearrangement may take place by a radical or ionic mechanism.

The reaction
A description of the reaction was first published by the American chemist Fred McLafferty in 1959.