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!
Alcohols can serve both as a nucleophile and an electrophile (substrate) in SN1 and SN2 reactions. However, by themselves, alcohols are not great for any of these reactions because 1) they are weak nucleophiles and 2) the OH is not … Read more
We have learned that to name a molecule, we need to find the parent chain and the smaller carbon fragments known as alkyl groups or substituents, in general. For example, removing one hydrogen from the corresponding hydrocarbon, we get the … Read more
Parent chain is the “main part” of the molecule. Just like a car or a house is the main component, no matter what accessories and decorations we can have on them. For example, suppose we have an infinitely long carbon … Read more
Jones oxidation is the most common oxidation method for converting primary alcohols to carboxylic acids. It is carried out either by CrO3 in H2SO4, chromic acid itself, or a dichromate salt such as Na2Cr2O7 in the presence of sulfuric acid. … Read more
Angle Strain and Torsional Strain Cycloalkanes are less stable than their open-chain analogs. For example, butane is more stable than cyclobutane, and propane is far more stable than cyclopropane. It may visually be obvious why they are less stable without … Read more
There are a few ways to convert nitriles to esters. Let’s start with the Pinner reaction, which, although not commonly highlighted in textbooks, is a direct and efficient method for this transformation. Pinner Reaction for Converting Nitriles to Esters … Read more
Ketones can be converted to esters through the Baeyer–Villiger oxidation, where a ketone reacts with a peracid (like mCPBA) to insert an oxygen atom next to the carbonyl, forming an ester. Notice that the more substituted alkyl group of … Read more
Depending on whether you need to oxidize a primary alcohol to an aldehyde or a carboxylic acid, you can use either pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC) or Jones reagent (a solution of chromium trioxide, CrO3 in aqueous sulfuric acid): Notice … Read more
Carbon is positively charged when, instead of the preferred four bonds, it has three bonds. Remember, from the bonding patterns in organic chemistry, carbon prefers to have four bonds and no lone pairs. These bonds can be any combination of … Read more
Sterics or steric interactions are the obstructions caused by the size of neighboring groups and atoms. In other words, it is simply two or more atoms/molecules/groups getting in each other’s way because of the tight space. So, how does stereics … Read more
