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!
We know that the hydrohalogenation of alkynes produces a vinyl halide which is an alkene that is converted into a geminal dihalide upon the second electrophilic addition of HX: So, how can we convert the alkyne into an alkyl halide? … Read more
Direct Conversion of Acid Chlorides to Ketones Acid chlorides also known as acyl chlorides (ROCl) can be converted to ketones in direct and indirect transformations. The direct conversation is achieved by their reaction with organocuprates (Gilman reagent – R2CuLi). … Read more
Alcohols can be oxidized to aldehydes and ketones using a variety of oxidizing agents. The outcome of the oxidation depends both on the oxidizing agent and the structure of the alcohol. Recall from the oxidation states of organic compounds that … Read more
Preparation of Nitriles Nitriles can be prepared by substitution reactions of alkyl halides with cyanide salts: These are nucleophilic substitution reactions and we introduce the nitrile group by using the nucleophilicity of the cyanide ion. In a similar … Read more
Primary Alcohols to Acid Chlorides Acid or acyl chlorides are carboxylic acid derivatives, therefore, to convert a primary alcohol to an acid chloride, we need to first oxidize to a carboxylic acid. The carboxylic acid then can be converted to … Read more
There are a few strategies to convert alcohols to amides, and to discuss them, we first need to decide whether the alcohol is going to be the acyl or amino part of the amide: Alcohols to Amides via … Read more
The conversion of alcohols to alkynes is a two-step process. We need to first dehydrate to an alkene, and halogenate the latter to a dihalide, which can now be treated with a strong base such as sodium amide (NaNH2) to … Read more
Alkynes and nitriles are structurally similar, so let’s discuss how we can replace one of the carbons in the alkyne with a nitrogen: When one of the carbons is replaced, the carbon chain will be shortened by one. … Read more
There are a few ways of converting nitriles to amides. One of them is the sure way as it imposes no risk of your instructor counting it as invalid and taking some or all your points off. This is the … Read more
Let’s discuss a few ways of converting ketones to amides, starting with the Beckmann rearrangement. It is not the ketone that undergoes a rearrangement but rather the intermediate oxime: Oximes are prepared from the ketone under acidic conditions, … Read more
