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!
Check Also in Elimination Reactions: Elimination Reactions of Cyclohexanes General Features of Elimination The E2 Mechanism Regioselectivity of E2 Reactions: The Zaitsev and Hofmann Products Stereoselectivity of E2 Reactions Stereospecificity of E2 Reactions The E1 Mechanism Stereoselectivity of E1 Reactions … Read more
The halogens Br2 and Cl2 add to the double bond of an alkene, producing vicinal dihalides – a compound bearing the halogens on adjacent carbons (vicinus, Latin: adjacent). These are also called 1,2-dihalides: The reaction with bromine is … Read more
The Regiochemistry of Hydroboration-Oxidation In the previous post, we mentioned that Hydroboration-oxidation places the OH group on the less substituted carbon of an alkene. Overall, it is an anti-Markovnikov hydration of the alkene, which is the regioselectivity of this reaction. … Read more
Hydroboration–oxidation converts alkenes into alcohols, with the OH group ending up on the less substituted carbon. As we will see below, there are two main parts in this conversion: the hydroboration step, which forms the intermediate alkyl borane, and the … Read more
From Acid-Catalyzed Hydration of Alkenes In the previous post, we talked about the acid-catalyzed hydration of alkenes, which, in general, is a “Markovnikov” addition of water, giving the corresponding alcohol. A quick reminder, Markovnikov’s rule is followed when the X component … Read more
Acid-Catalyzed hydration is the addition of water to an alkene, which forms an alcohol. Overall, it is an electrophilic addition reaction in which both the alkene and water act as nucleophiles at different stages of the mechanism. The … Read more
We learned earlier that according to Markovnikov’s rule, the addition of an HX acid to an alkene produces the more substituted alkyl halide as the major product: Interestingly, in the presence of peroxides, HBr forms the less substituted … Read more
How to Convert the OH into a Leaving Group In many cases, when students are asked to convert an alcohol to an alkyl halide, they would use the corresponding halide and show the reaction with an SN2 mechanism:The result is … Read more
Let’s state the objective of this post right away. We need to explain why the following reaction produces one of the alkenes as the major product: This preference for addition to alkenes was first explained by Markovnikov and … Read more
