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!
You are in the very beginning of your organic chemistry class, and your professor has told you that carbon has / likes / prefers four bonds. This, of course, is true – the golden number of carbon is 4.You were … Read more
Functional groups are what set apart the chemical properties of organic compounds. For example, if we draw pentane and heptane, or pentanol and heptanol next to each other, they will look quite similar because the length of the carbon chain … Read more
We have seen many times in SN1, SN2, E1, and E2 reactions that halogens, more specifically, their ions called halides, are the leaving group.A common question many students wonder about, and make the mistake of, is whether an OH group … Read more
Have resonance structures been a major topic in your class recently? It may seem that there are too many rules to memorize about resonance structures, but there are a few important things you need to realize before getting into the … Read more
You’ve already learned what alkanes are, their structure, how they’re named, and you probably even remember the first ten representatives (methane through decane). Now, if we take any alkane and replace one of its hydrogen atoms with a … Read more
You are wondering about this question because you have started talking about naming organic compounds by using the IUPAC rules. Yes, that is the beginning of organic chemistry, so you don’t want to get behind in these topics. Now, to … Read more
Acetals are organic compounds in which a carbon atom is bonded to two alkoxy groups (-OR). They don’t look much like a carbonyl compound, so why do we need to talk about them in the chapter on aldehydes … Read more
Nucleophilic Additions to the Carbonyl Group In this chapter on aldehydes and ketones, we begin to see a new type of mechanism originating from the polar nature of the C=O carbonyl bond. When we say “different,” that is mainly compared … Read more
We have seen in many examples how Grignard and organolithium reagents react with various carbonyl compounds such as aldehydes, ketones, esters, and more. So, let’s discuss what happens when we react a Grignard or organolithium reagent with carbon dioxide. Although … Read more
In this post, we’ll talk about a common question you encounter in organic chemistry tests and exams. How do you know if the alkyl halide or a similar substrate will react by SN1 or E1 mechanism? This dilemma is one … Read more
