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!
So, you talked about IR spectroscopy in class, and now it’s time to summarize what you’ve learned and start solving some practical problems. The first step in doing that is to know the key absorption signals in IR spectroscopy. This … Read more
The main Organic Chemistry 1 chapters in most US curricula go up to the reactions of alcohols. So, this summary will include synthesis practice problems on Alkenes, Alkynes, and Alcohols. If you need to practice SN1, SN2, E1, and E2 … Read more
How to interpret IR spectra with the whole bunch of peaks that jump out at you right away? Well, that is the purpose of this post: how to interpret and solve IR spectroscopy problems, keeping things simple. In a … Read more
In the previous few posts, we discussed Newman projections, their use in illustrating and understanding the conformational analysis of open-chain and cyclic structures, such as chair conformations. This post is a summary of practice problems on Newman projections. … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about the ortho-, meta-, and para-directors in electrophilic aromatic substitution (EAS). Substituents on a benzene ring influence both the reactivity of the ring and the position where new groups enter. Activating groups (such as … Read more
In the previous post, we saw that ozonolysis is used to convert alkenes into aldehydes and ketones through the oxidative cleavage of the C=C double bond. Here are some ozonolysis practice problems for alkenes and alkynes, where you … Read more
In this post, we will practice E2 elimination reactions, focusing on the mechanism and how to determine the major and minor products based on the structure of the substrate and the nature of the base. Common bases we will consider … Read more
We have seen earlier that in electrophilic aromatic substitutions, it is the benzene ring that provides the electrons to react with electron-deficient species – electrophiles.Therefore, the more electron density we supply to benzene, the more reactive it becomes in EAS … Read more
In an antiperiplanar arrangement, two atoms or groups are positioned on opposite sides of the same plane, typically around a carbon-carbon single bond. This is clearly seen in the Newman projection of butane, where the lowest-energy anti conformation places the … Read more
When talking about Newman projections, we saw that the free rotation about single bonds changes the spatial arrangement of atoms in the molecule. As a result of these rotations, different conformations of molecules are possible. For example, two groups interchange … Read more
