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 the previous post, we talked about the nucleophilic aromatic substitution, looking at the specifics of the mechanism, regiochemistry, and the limitations. Below are some additional examples to practice these concepts.
Epoxides are three-membered rings containing an oxygen atom. They are associated with high ring strain, and this is the basis of their reactivity towards nucleophiles despite lacking a good leaving group. The ring strain is a combination of two destabilizing factors: angle … Read more
Doing practice problems is the only way to master organic chemistry! At Chemistry Steps, you can find all the topics of Organic 1 and 2 and their associated practice problems. There are more than 2000 practice questions, and you can find … Read more
In the previous post, we discussed the ring-opening reactions of epoxides with strong and weak nucleophiles. Using this information, try solving the following practice problems.
There are a few main strategies for preparing epoxides, and the good news is that we have seen all of them in earlier chapters. Therefore, this post is a review of reactions leading to epoxidation with additional emphasis on the … Read more
In oxidative cleavage reactions, C=C bonds are broken and replaced with C=O bonds. In this article, we will specifically focus on the oxidative cleavage of alkenes. This is most commonly achieved with potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and ozonolysis: So, … Read more
Sodium periodate (NaIO4) is a strong oxidizing agent mainly used for the oxidative cleavage of 1,2-diols (vicinal diols), forming aldehydes and ketones depending on the structure of the alcohol. So, there are two things happening here: 1) the … Read more
In this post, we will talk about the synthesis of amides using DCC and EDC coupling agents. Before getting into the details, let’s first discuss a couple of strategies for preparing amides without using any fancy coupling agent. First, considering … Read more
In the following practice problems, the reactions and different ways of preparing amines will be discussed. Keep in mind that aside from the reactions specifically related to amines, such as the Gabriel amine synthesis, there are transformations that will require … Read more
Reaction with Primary Aliphatic and Aromatic Amines Primary aliphatic and aromatic amines react with nitrous acid, forming arena diazonium salts, while the reaction of secondary amines gives N-nitrosamines (R2NN=O). Now, let’s take a closer look and see how … Read more
