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 acid-catalyzed hydration of alkenes where an alcohol is formed as the major organic product: If an alcohol, rather than water, is used as the solvent a very similar reaction takes … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about a simple strategy you can use for changing the position of a double bond. A similar tool-set, commonly used in organic synthesis, is the change of the position for a leaving group: … Read more
Changing the position of a double bond is a very important tool in organic synthesis. For example, let’s try to figure out what happens in this transformation: The double bond has suddenly moved to produce a new regioisomer … Read more
This is a comprehensive problem that covers the following topics and will serve as a review of all of them: Substitution and elimination reactions. Particularly, substitution and elimination reactions of alcohols, the regio– and stereochemistry of E2 reactions and E2 reaction … Read more
Diols and Epoxidation Dihydroxylation is the addition of two OH groups to an Alkene: This can be achieved in several ways depending on the structure of the target diol, mainly, whether we need it in a cis or … Read more
In the previous post, we learned that the anti-dihydroxylation of alkenes is achieved by converting them to epoxides, followed by acid or base-catalyzed ring-opening of the epoxide: To convert alkenes into cis-diols by syn dihydroxylation, they are reacted … Read more
Ozonolysis is an efficient way of oxidizing alkenes (and alkynes as well) into their corresponding aldehydes and ketones: One of the advantages of ozonolysis compared to other oxidative cleavage reactions is that it does not over-oxidize the alkene … Read more
In the following practice problems, we will go over efficient strategies for solving IR spectroscopy problems. Yes, IR spectra look overwhelming at first, as there are so many peaks, but knowing where to pay attention makes it a lot easier … Read more
In today’s post, we will discuss the VSEPR theory which helps us understand the geometry of molecules. First, what does VSEPR stand for? It is the Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion theory. Notice the highlighted word ‘Repulsion’. It is the … Read more
