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 the previous post, we talked about the optical activity and the observed rotation. Remember, the observed rotation is the degree and direction to which the plane of a polarized light rotates when passing through a sample of a chiral … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about the intermolecular interactions and their correlation with the physical properties of compounds. The principles of intermolecular interactions are important in estimating the solubility of a given compound. Let’s first define what we understand … Read more
Chemical reactions are rearrangements of atoms as the bonds between them are broken and new ones are formed. For example, in the following reaction, the C-Br bond is broken, and the C-Cl bond is formed: Let’s now compare … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about the main principle of energy, heat and enthalpy associated with chemical reactions. We mentioned, the total change in enthalpy (ΔH°) for the reaction, called the heat of reaction, occurs because of the difference … Read more
In the following few posts, we are going to discuss the scary “enthalpy”, “entropy, and “Gibbs free energy” terms tailored toward organic reactions. The links will take to the topics in general chemistry which you can read to refresh these … Read more
This is a set of practice problems on naming organic compounds. The examples cover the nomenclature of alkanes, bicyclic compounds, alkenes, alkynes, alcohols, alkyl halides, aromatic compounds, aldehydes and ketones, amines, ethers, and carboxylic acid derivatives such as nitriles, esters, … Read more
In this post, we will learn how to determine eh absolute configuration of allenes. We are, of course, talking about chiral allenes like, for example, this one: Chirality of Allenes In order for the allene to be chiral, … Read more
In the IUPAC nomenclature of carboxylic acids, we learned that their salts are named by replacing the suffix “ic acid” or “oic acid” with “ate”. For example, sodium acetate, potassium butyrate, etc. The good news is that esters follow the … Read more
In the IUPAC nomenclature, nitriles can be named by systematic and common nomenclature. Systematic Nomenclature of Nitriles In the systematic nomenclature, the suffix “nitrile” is simply added to the name of the parent alkane that contains the CN group. … Read more
Naming Primary Amides Before going over the principles of naming amides, recall that there are primary, secondary, and tertiary amides. Amides are derivatives of carboxylic acids, and if you have already read about the nomenclature of carboxylic acids, … Read more
