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!
Acetylide ions are the conjugate bases of terminal alkynes: What makes them different from the conjugate bases of alkanes and alkenes is that they are easier to prepare and use in other reactions. The reason for this is … Read more
Alkenes are converted to alkyl halides by the addition reactions of hydrohalic acids (HCl, HBr, HI). These are generally Markovnikov additions unless we direct the Br to the less substituted carbon atom radical addition using a peroxide catalyst: From reaction … Read more
The dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halides gives alkenes. For example, we can react alkyl halides with strong bulky and non-bulky bases to prepare the Zaitsev or Hofmann alkene: Preparation of Alkynes As the name suggests, in these dehydration reactions, … Read more
Alkyl halides can be converted to alkenes via elimination reactions using strong and weak bases. These conversions are also known as dehydrohalogenation reactions: The elimination reactions are most often achieved by using strong bases, and there are several … Read more
There are several ways of converting alcohols to alkyl halides. The most common, and perhaps the one that covers nuances of SN1 and SN2 reactions is the use of HX acids (HCl, HBr, HI), so let’s start with that. The … Read more
Let’s discuss some strategies for converting alkyl halides to aldehydes and ketones. Converting the alkyl halide to an alcohol and oxidizing the latter to an aldehyde or ketone requires the least number of topics to have covered, so let’s start … Read more
Aldehydes and ketones are carbonyl compounds, and the carbon here is in a relatively high oxidation state: Notice that the oxidation state of the carbon decreases with the number of hydrogens connected to it. On the contrary, the … Read more
Let’s discuss an important and perhaps the most common way of converting aldehydes and ketones to amines, known as reductive amination. Before going into the details of reductive amination, let’s recall that amines are not formed by “simply” reacting aldehydes … Read more
Amides are derivatives of carboxylic acids, therefore, one strategy to convert aldehydes to amides is by first oxidizing them to carboxylic acids. Once we have the carboxylic acid, we can subject it to condensation with amines using a coupling agent … Read more
Let’s discuss a few strategies for converting alkenes to carboxylic acids that allow to increase the length of the carbon chain, decrease it, and keep it the same as well: Alkenes to Carboxylic Acids: Keeping the Length of … Read more
