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 discussed the principle and mechanism of the Wittig reaction. Go over those if you need to, and in the following practice problem, we will work on proposing a synthesis for Wittig reagents as well as … Read more
We discussed the mechanisms for the hydrolysis of acetals, imines, and enamine to aldehydes and ketones in the previous posts: Acetal Hydrolysis Mechanism Imine and Enamine Hydrolysis Mechanism So, here is a set of practice problems you can work on … Read more
In the previous two posts, we have seen that aldehydes and ketones react with primary amines, in mildly acidic conditions, forming an imine (a Schiff base). The reaction with secondary amines produces enamines: Below are a few practice exmmples of these reactions :
Acetals are the protecting groups for aldehydes and ketones. They can be used, for example, when a selective reduction of an ester is needed in the presence of an aldehyde or a ketone: Remember, aldehydes are more reactive … Read more
Organic Chemistry Practice Problems can be found after each topic covered in Chemistry Steps. The list of topics can be found here, and below are some examples of what you will find. Refer to this post if you are seeking … Read more
In 1965, while working on the synthesis of new lightweight yet strong materials for use in tires because of the anticipated gasoline shortage, Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont accidentally discovered Kevlar-the registered trademark name of para-aramid polymers used in bulletproof vests … Read more
The addition-elimination mechanism represents certain types of substitutions where the replacement of the leaving group is achieved in two consecutive steps – addition, and elimination. The most common example is the acyl substitution where one group connected to the carbonyl … Read more
In this chapter on aldehydes and ketones, we are going to see a new type of reaction – the nucleophilic addition to the carbonyl (C=O) bond: The nucleophilic addition to the carbonyl group occurs as a result of … Read more
Aldehydes and ketones can be prepared by a variety of methods. All of these and the corresponding mechanisms have already been covered previously, so if you need more details about the given reaction, just follow the link to open it … Read more
Aldehydes and ketones have higher priority than all the other functional groups we covered so far. Therefore, they define the parent chain and give the corresponding suffix. All the other groups standing below in the functional group priority table are … Read more
