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!
Dess–Martin periodinane (DMP) oxidation Alcohols can be oxidized to aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids depending on their structure and the type of oxidizing agent. In general, we can classify oxidizing agents as strong and mild. Mild oxidizing reagents stop the … Read more
Pyridinium Chlorochromate (PCC) Oxidation PCC oxidation is one of the selective methods for oxidizing primary alcohols to aldehydes. Although very often the outcome of the oxidation will depend on the presence or absence of water, traditionally, the most common mild oxidizing … Read more
Swern oxidation is one of the selective methods for oxidizing primary alcohols to aldehydes. Like other mild oxidizing agents, such as pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC), pyridinium dichromate (PDC), and the Dess-Martin (DMP) oxidation, it stops the oxidation once the carbonyl group … Read more
Dehydration of alcohols using phosphorus oxychloride (POCl3) and pyridine (an amine base) in place of H2SO4 or TsOH is a good alternative for converting alcohols to alkenes when working with compounds that decompose in the presence of strong acids: … Read more
Hey, if you have been looking for a website to practice organic chemistry, congrats, you are there! On Chemistry Steps, you can find almost all the topics of Organic 1 and 2 for free, practice problems, study guides, and multiple-choice … Read more
We have seen earlier how alkyl halides undergo E1 and E2 elimination reactions to form alkenes: In those reactions, the leaving group was the halide, which was kicked out by removing the β-hydrogen and making a new π … Read more
In this post, we will talk about the SN2 mechanism of nucleophilic substitution reactions. As a reminder from the introduction to nucleophilic substitutions, these are reactions where the nucleophile replaces the leaving group: These reactions are divided into … Read more
The SN1 nucleophilic substitution is a unimolecular – first-order reaction: It is a stepwise mechanism that starts by breaking the bond of the α carbon and the leaving group, followed by the nucleophilic attack: As you … Read more
E/Z and Cis/Trans Alkenes In the previous post, we discussed the cis and trans designations of alkenes. As a recap, cis and trans stereoisomerism depend on whether two identical alkyl groups on the c=c bond are on the same or opposite sides of that double … Read more
Cis and Trans Alkenes Alkenes can be stereoisomeric even though this is slightly different than what we learn about enantiomers and diastereomers containing chirality centers. For example, let’s try to determine the relationship between molecules in each of the following … Read more
