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 have seen many times when discussing the SN2 mechanism that ethers are common products of nucleophilic substitution reactions. They are synthesized by reacting alkyl halides or other substrates with good leaving groups with alkoxides: This method of … Read more
Alcohols can be converted to alkyl halides by reacting with HX (X = Cl, Br, I) acids. The reaction works for 1°, 2°, and 3° alcohols: Let’s now understand how this happens. We have seen many times in … Read more
Remember when discussing the substitution reactions, we said that the hydroxide ion (–OH) is a poor leaving group since it is quite a strong base. Therefore, the –OH cannot be expelled by a direct nucleophilic attack in an SN2 or … Read more
Thionyl chloride (SOCl2) and phosphorus tribromide (PBr3) can be used for converting primary and secondary alcohols to alkyl chlorides and alkyl bromides respectively: Both reactions have similar mechanisms with the idea of turning the OH into a good … Read more
Dess–Martin periodinane (DMP) oxidation Alcohols can be oxidized to aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids depending on their structure and the type of oxidizing agent. In general, we can classify oxidizing agents as strong and mild. Mild oxidizing reagents stop the … Read more
Pyridinium Chlorochromate (PCC) Oxidation PCC oxidation is one of the selective methods for oxidizing primary alcohols to aldehydes. Although very often the outcome of the oxidation will depend on the presence or absence of water, traditionally, the most common mild oxidizing … Read more
Swern oxidation is one of the selective methods for oxidizing primary alcohols to aldehydes. Like other mild oxidizing agents, such as pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC), pyridinium dichromate (PDC), and the Dess-Martin (DMP) oxidation, it stops the oxidation once the carbonyl group … Read more
Dehydration of alcohols using phosphorus oxychloride (POCl3) and pyridine (an amine base) in place of H2SO4 or TsOH is a good alternative for converting alcohols to alkenes when working with compounds that decompose in the presence of strong acids: … Read more
Hey, if you have been looking for a website to practice organic chemistry, congrats, you are there! On Chemistry Steps, you can find almost all the topics of Organic 1 and 2 for free, practice problems, study guides, and multiple-choice … Read more
We have seen earlier how alkyl halides undergo E1 and E2 elimination reactions to form alkenes: In those reactions, the leaving group was the halide, which was kicked out by removing the β-hydrogen and making a new π … Read more
