The only way of mastering any topic in Organic Chemistry is doing lots of practice problems. And I know, seeing my students, that starting to work on a practice problem may be the hardest part as you don’t know where to start. It is difficult to visualize what where the double bond would be moved if you follow the five curved arrows crammed in one step. Here is the trick:
We are always told to think before doing something. Fair enough. But let me tell you, it is also strangely enough, that in Organic Chemistry, it is often better to draw and then think about what you did (not in the lab though). It is much easier to have a structure in front of you and check for errors and improvements.
Do the first step, take the pencil and you will see that the ball gets rolling.
You have all these Organic Chemistry Practice Problems waiting to be solved!
In this post, we will discuss and show the mechanisms of some important reactions of lactones and lactams, such as their preparation, acid- and base-catalyzed hydrolysis, and reduction by LiAlH4. We will also go over the Grignard reaction of lactones. … Read more
The steric number is one of the simplest and most reliable tools for predicting the hybridization and molecular geometry. It tells us how many atoms and lone pairs a given atom has, which in turn defines the geometry and the … Read more
Your professor has been talking about the SN2 reaction, and you have got the key principles such as the curved arrow mechanism, inversion of configuration, and second-order reaction, but there was one phrase that left you wondering: “concerted mechanism”. So, … Read more
The SN2 (Substitution Nucleophilic Bimolecular) reaction involves a single concerted step, where the nucleophile attacks the carbon bearing the leaving group from the backside, and the leaving group departs simultaneously. As an example, let’s show the reaction between 2-bromobutane and … Read more
The primary way of preparing alkenes is through elimination reactions of alkyl halides and alcohols. The key difference between these two substrates is that the elimination of alkyl halides follows the E2 mechanism, while alcohols are dehydrated to alkenes via … Read more
Like any other hydrocarbon, alkynes are much less acidic than, for example, alcohols, thiols, carboxylic acids, and especially hydrohalic acids. However, what sets them apart from other hydrocarbons, such as alkanes and alkenes, is their relatively high acidity. … Read more
We have seen that carbocation rearrangements may lead to unexpected products in SN1 nucleophilic substitution reactions. For example, when the following alkyl halide is reacted with water, the major product of the reaction is formed via a hydride shift, which … Read more
Let’s make an overview of elimination reactions in organic chemistry. The first question we want to address is: What is eliminated from the molecule?While there may be different atoms removed in elimination reactions, most of the time it involves the … Read more
We have learned the R and S and IUPAC nomenclature rules, and now it’s time to see how these two work together. In other words, how do we name a compound that contains a chiral center? The idea is simple: … Read more
The degree of unsaturation, also known as the index of hydrogen deficiency (IHD), tells us how many π bonds and/or rings are present in a molecule. It’s one of the first things we calculate when analyzing a molecular formula, especially … Read more
