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 today’s post, we will talk about the chlorination and bromination of benzene via electrophilic aromatic substitution. Remember, in the introductory post about aromatic compounds, we mentioned that, unlike alkenes, dienes, and other conjugated systems, benzene does not react with … Read more
Nitration of benzene or its derivatives introduces a nitro (NO2) group into the aromatic system. The reaction is carried out with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids at temperatures above 50 oC. The role of sulfuric acid … Read more
Decarboxylation is the loss of carbon dioxide upon heating, typically characteristic of carboxylic acids with a β-carbonyl group. These are most often beta-keto acids, malonic acid, or its derivatives: Carboxylic acids by themselves are very stable and do … Read more
Addition of Organolithiums to Carboxylic Acids One of the most common ways of converting carboxylic acids to ketones is their reaction with organolithiums. The first step is the deprotonation of the acid since organolithiums are also very strong … Read more
Aldehydes to Carboxylic Acids Aldehydes can be oxidized to carboxylic acids with a variety of oxidizing agents such as chromic acid, sodium dichromate, potassium permanganate, and sodium hypochlorite. Here is the summary of oxidizing agents we discussed in … Read more
The alkylation of ketones is achieved through enolate intermediates, which are formed by deprotonating the alpha position (the carbon next to the carbonyl group): If you are still in the chapter on aldehydes and ketones, this may look … Read more
We have learned that activating groups are ortho, para directors, and the meta product for these benzene derivatives is obtained only in negligible quantities. To obtain a meta-substitution product, a deactivating group such as a nitro or a carbonyl group is needed. … Read more
Preparation of Aniline There are a few main ways of preparing aniline, also known as Phenylamine. Reduction of the Nitro Group We can add a nitro group to benzene or its derivative via standard nitration using HNO3 and H2SO4, and … Read more
Preparation of Phenols Phenols can be prepared industrially by a substitution reaction of aryl halides under extreme conditions: This is a type of nucleophilic aromatic substitution via a benzyne intermediate: Milder conditions suitable for laboratory preparation … Read more
Esters can be converted to alcohols by two types of reduction reactions. One is the reduction by a strong reducing agent such as LiAlH4 to a primary alcohol, and the second is the conversion to a tertiary alcohol by reacting … Read more
