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!
Ethers can be converted to alkyl halides when treated with HBr and HI in a sequence of two substitution reactions: This transformation represents two substitution reactions. First, the ether is converted into an alkyl halide and an alcohol, … Read more
Amines Before going into the details of naming amines, let’s first recall what they are and how they are classified. Amines are the derivatives of ammonia (remember NH3 from General Chemistry). Replacing one hydrogen of ammonia with an alkyl … Read more
To determine the R and S configuration of the chiral carbon atoms in a Fischer projection, we first need to recall the concept of the Fischer projection. And that is, the horizontal groups are pointing towards the viewer (wedge), and … Read more
In this post, we will learn how to convert between Fischer, Bond-line, and Newman projections in different orders. This is an essential skill as it helps to visualize the molecule in space, and that is what a significant part of … Read more
Today, we will talk about another type of stereoisomers, which are called diastereomers. This may be overwhelming since at this point you are probably trying to keep track of constitutional isomers, stereoisomers, enantiomers, and not being tricked when the same … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about the nucleophilic aromatic substitution, looking at the specifics of the mechanism, regiochemistry, and the limitations. Below are some additional examples to practice these concepts.
Epoxides are three-membered rings containing an oxygen atom. They are associated with high ring strain, and this is the basis of their reactivity towards nucleophiles despite lacking a good leaving group. The ring strain is a combination of two destabilizing factors: angle … Read more
Doing practice problems is the only way to master organic chemistry! At Chemistry Steps, you can find all the topics of Organic 1 and 2 and their associated practice problems. There are more than 2000 practice questions, and you can find … Read more
In the previous post, we discussed the ring-opening reactions of epoxides with strong and weak nucleophiles. Using this information, try solving the following practice problems.
There are a few main strategies for preparing epoxides, and the good news is that we have seen all of them in earlier chapters. Therefore, this post is a review of reactions leading to epoxidation with additional emphasis on the … Read more
