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!
Is it an SN1 or SN2 mechanism? If you are asked to determine whether the nucleophilic substitution goes through an SN1 or SN2 mechanism, look at the following criteria in the given order: 1) Check the substrate (alkyl halide most … Read more
Now that you have learned about the SN1 and SN2 mechanisms, try to draw a reasonable mechanism for the following substitution reaction: Wait, this doesn’t make sense, right? The nucleophile suddenly appears where there was no leaving group… … Read more
Choosing between SN1, SN2, E1 and E2 In the previous posts, we discussed choosing between SN1 and SN2, as well as SN1, SN2, E1, and E2 mechanisms. The main focus here was on the substrate and the strength of the … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about the mechanism, kinetics, reactivity, rearrangements, and some more features of the SN1 reaction. The SN1 Nucleophilic Substitution Reaction You can go over those before solving the practice problems shown below.
Nucleophilic Substitution reactions are very important as they are the first type of reactions that teach us how to achieve functional group transformations in Organic Chemistry. Substitution reactions cover a broad spectrum of topics, starting from kinetics and thermodynamics that … Read more
What is a substitution reaction? In a substitution reaction, one atom (or a functional group) replaces another one. The replacing group is called a “nucleophile,” and the group being kicked out is called a “leaving group.”: These reactions … Read more
The nomenclature of alkyl halides follows the same IUPAC rules that we discussed for naming alkane. The only difference here is that one (or more) of the substituents is a halogen, and its naming is a little modified. Let’s first … Read more
Alkyl halides are molecules in which a halogen is bonded to an sp3 hybridized carbon atom. They are classified into Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Alkyl Halides, which are especially important in nucleophilic substitution and elimination reactions. To distinguish between a primary, secondary, … Read more
E1 reactions are stereoselective – that is, when a cis or a trans alkene can be formed, the trans isomer is generally the major product: This selectivity can be explained by simply comparing the stability of alkenes. Remember, … Read more
