Bocknack OChem II

Wednesday, August 13...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer key for POD#18, POD#20, notes from today's lecture

Today's focus was on the electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction mechanism.  We also started to discuss the effect that an existing substituent will have on a subsequent electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction.  On Thursday, we'll finish talking about these substituent effects, and then we'll consider how electrophilic aromatic substitution chemistry can be used in synthesis.  This will set you up to be able to solve POD#20 (due on Friday by 3:00 p.m.).

The second part of Thursday's lecture will focus on the chemistry of amines (Chapter 23).  On Friday, we'll finish this discussion, which will bring us to the end of the term...

Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008.

Tuesday, August 12...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer key for POD#17, POD#19, notes from today's lecture

Today, we finished looking at what it means for a molecule to be "aromatic" and we also introduced the concept of "antiaromaticity".  We also looked at the acid-base properties of phenols, some other useful reactions of phenols, and reactions that occur at a benzylic position.

On Wednesday, our focus will be on the mechanism of electrophilic aromatic substitution, which is the key reaction described in Chapter 22.  After we discuss several examples of this mechanism, you should be equipped to solve POD#19 (due by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday), which is a mechanism problem.  At the end of Thursday's lecture, we'll learn how to predict the outcome of a substitution reaction when substituents are already present on the aromatic ring.  Get ready to draw lots and lots of resonance structures!!!

Posted on Tuesday, August 12, 2008.

Monday, August 11...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer key for POD#16, POD#18, notes from today's lecture

Today, we considered the electrophilic addition reactions of conjugated dienes.  Since a resonance-stabilized allylic carbocation can form in the first step of the mechanism, products of 1,2-addition and 1,4-addition are typically obtained.  At low temperatures, when the reaction is effectively irreversible, the kinetic product (1,2-adduct) is favored.  At high temperatures, where the possible products can equilibrate, the thermodynamic product (typically the 1,4-adduct) is favored.  Be sure to understand the distinction between "kinetic control" and "thermodynamic control"!!!  Now that we have finished Chapter 20, you should be able to tackle POD#18 (due on Wednesday @ 3:00 p.m.).  Also remember to turn in the synthesis problems in POD#17 by 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday!

Our focus for much of this last week will be on the chemistry of aromatic compounds.  Today, we saw exactly what it means for a molecule to be "aromatic" by focusing on benzene.  In general, a molecule is described as "aromatic" when it meets all four Huckel criteria.  We'll look at some examples to illustrate how to apply the Huckel criteria on Tuesday.  We will then start to consider how aromatic compounds react.  Get ready for electrophilic aromatic substitution, one of the last very important general reaction mechanisms we will consider in detail this summer!

Posted on Monday, August 11, 2008.

Friday, August 8...

The following new items have been posted:  POD#16, POD#17, notes from today's lecture

POD#16 (due on Monday by 3:00 p.m.) is a mechanism problem that relates to the conjugate addition chemistry that we finished discussing on Wednesday. POD#17 (due on Tuesday by 3:00 p.m.) also relates to conjugate addition, as applied in organic synthesis.   It would be a good idea to review Wednesday's notes and the related material in Chapter 19 before tackling either of these problems!  This will also help you to catch up in your studying so you don't enter the last week of the class too far behind.

Today, our focus was on the relative stability of conjugated dienes (Chapter 20).  On Monday, we'll finish looking at the molecular orbital description of a conjugated diene, and we'll consider the electrophilic addition reactions of these compounds.  We'll then begin our discussion of an even more important class of molecules with a pi electron system - molecules that contain an aromatic ring...

Have a nice weekend!

Posted on Friday, August 8, 2008.

Midterm Exam #2 Grades...

...HAVE BEEN UPLOADED TO THE BLACKBOARD GRADEBOOK

Exam Statistics:
Avg Raw Score = 207.70 (69.23%)
St Dev = 47.06 (15.69%)
High Raw Score = 293 (2)
126 students took the exam

The exam questions and answer key have been posted.  Graded exams will be returned AFTER LECTURE on Friday, August 8.  The deadline to submit all regrade requests for Part II of the exam is 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 12.  To submit a regrade, please follow the instructions given in the "Exam Pickup & Regrade Policies" handout.

POD#16 has also been posted.  The deadline to submit this homework is 3:00 p.m. on Monday, August 11.  You might find it helpful to review your notes on conjugate addition from Wednesday's lecture before you tack this mechanism problem...

Posted on Thursday, August 7, 2008.

Monday, August 4...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer Key for POD#13, POD#15, Exam Information Sheet for Midterm #2, today's lecture notes

Today, we finished our discussion of the aldol reaction by looking at the intramolecular aldol reaction (favorable if the result is a 5 or 6 membered ring).  We also discussed the importance of recognizing when a target (beta-hydroxy aldehyde/ketone or alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehyde/ketone) could have been prepared via aldol or aldol condensation chemistry.  If the precursor molecules are not identical, it is also very important to determine if the required crossed aldol reaction would be synthetically feasible (one major product would predominate).

Esters with at least two alpha protons are excellent substrates for the Claisen condensation reaction.  In this important carbon-carbon bond forming reaction, one ester molecule undergos alpha substitution (Chapter 16), while the other undergoes nucleophilic acyl substitution (Chapter 18).  Once again, the overall transformation is somewhat complicated, but there is nothing new in the mechanism!  Unlike the aldol reaction, which is reversible, and is catalyzed by acid or by base, the Claisen condensation is irreversible, and requires one full equivalent of base.  The Claisen condensation cannot occur under acidic reaction conditions!  We discussed why the reaction is irreversible, and why two alpha protons are required in the starting material, when we looked at the mechanism.  We also discusses why the base used must "match" the alkoxy group present in the starting ester.

Crossed Claisen condensation reactions are synthetically feasible when one major product will predominate.  We ended today's lecture by looking  at three situations where this is true.  We ended today by looking at the Dieckmann condensation reaction, which is just an intramolecular variant of the Claisen condensation.

On Tuesday, we'll consider the Dieckmann condensation reaction, which is just an intramolecular variant of the Claisen condensation.  We'll look at how to use the Claisen condensation in synthesis, and we'll discuss the malonic and acetoacetic ester syntheses.  In both of these reaction sequences, we combine alpha substitution of an ester enolate (Chapter 16) with the S_N2 reaction (Chapter 9), ester hydrolysis (Chapter 18), and finally decarboxylation (Chapter 17)!  Once again, mechanisms that we have encountered previously are tied together in a way that gives us useful, somewhat more complicated overall transformations.  This will be the last material that you will need to understand for Midterm Exam #2.  This is also the last material that you will need to think about to solve POD#15 (due by 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday), your last round of synthesis before the next exam.

Posted on Monday, August 4, 2008.

Friday, August 1...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer Key for POD#12, POD#14, today's lecture notes

Today, we finished Chapter 18 by looking at the mechanisms of the hydride reduction reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives.  We also looked in detail at the aldol and aldol condensation reactions.  When an aldehyde or ketone with alpha protons is exposed to base at room temperature, the enolate of one molecule can act as the nucleophile in a nucleophilic addition reaction with another molecule to yield a beta-hydroxy aldedhyde or ketone product.  Although the aldol reaction is somewhat more complicated than other transformations we have looked at, there is nothing new in the mechanism!  One molecule undergoes alpha substitution (Chapter 16), while the other molecule undergoes nucleophilic addition (Chapter 16).  In base with heating, the aldol product cannot be isolated - an elimination of H₂O occurs to yield an alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehyde or ketone product.  When the aldol reaction is followed by this dehydration, the net transformation is referred to as aldol condensation.  The aldol condensation reaction can also occur under acidic conditions.

Crossed aldol reactions are often not useful synthetically, because a mixture of products will typically be obtained.  The Claisen-Schmidt reaction, in which the enolate of a symmetrical ketone adds to an aldehyde that has no alpha protons is synthetically useful, since one product typically predominates.

On Monday, we'll finish our discussion of aldol and aldol condensation.  You will then be equipped to solve the synthesis problems in POD#14 (due by 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday).  Next, we'll turn our attention to the Claisen condensation reaction of esters.  Once again, there is nothing new here!  One ester molecule undergoes an alpha substitution reaction, while the other ester molecule undergoes a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction.  The result is a beta-keto ester, as we will soon see...

Have a great weekend!

Posted on Friday, August 1, 2008.

Thursday, July 31...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer Key for POD#11, POD#13, today's lecture notes

Today, our focus was on nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives.  Much of the chemistry in Chapter 18 can be summarized in three simple statements:  (1) A more reactive carboxylic acid derivative can be converted directly into a less reactive carboxylic acid derivative via a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction.  (2) Any carboxylic acid derivative can be converted directly into a carboxylic acid via hydrolysis (which follows the nucleophilic acyl substitution mechanism).  (3) A carboxylic acid can be converted directly into an acid chloride via reaction with thionyl chloride.  Nucleophilic acyl substitution therefore allows us to convert any carboxylic acid derivative into any other carboxylic acid derivative!

The specific mechanisms that we discussed include:  saponification of an ester, acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of a nitrile, base-promoted hydrolysis of a nitrile, reaction of an ester with a Grignard reagent.  We also saw what happens when an acid chloride is treated with a Gilman reagent, and that the outcome of hydride reduction is somewhat different when you compare the product produced by reduction of an ester to the product produced by the reduction of an amide.  Tomorrow, we'll understand why this difference is observed when we look at the mechanisms of these hydride reduction reactions.

After we finish the last bit of Chapter 18 on Friday, we'll begin looking at Chapter 19.  We'll start with the aldol reaction, and related transformations.  There really isn't anything new here...we'll combine nucleophilic addition to an aldehyde/ketone with alpha substitution...an excellent way to form new carbon-carbon bonds.  After our discussion on Friday, you'll be equipped to tackle POD#13 (due by 3:00 p.m. on Monday), which asks you to propose a mechanism for an acid-catalyzed crossed aldol reaction...

Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2008.

Wednesday, July 30...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer Key for POD#10, POD#12, today's lecture notes

Today, we used a resonance argument to rationalize the trends we observed in the C=O stretching frequency of the various carboxylic acid derivatives.  This argument was also useful for allowing us to predict the reactivity order towards nucleophilic acyl substitution.  Just about all of the reactions in Chapter 18 follow this same general mechanism!  On Thursday, we'll finish Chapter 18 by looking at some specific examples.  You will then be equipped to solve POD#12, which asks you to propose a mechanism for the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of an amide.  We'll also look at the reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives with organometallic reagents, and the hydride reduction reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives.

Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008.

Tuesday, July 29...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer Key for POD#09, POD#11, today's lecture notes

Today, we focused on the reactions of carboxylic acids.  One reaction mechanism that we considered in detail was the mechanism of Fischer esterification (acid-catalyzed reaction of a carboxylic acid with an alcohol).  Nucleophilic addition is followed by elimination - the net result is therefore an example of the nucleophilic acyl substitution mechanism.  This reaction is reversible, and so is the mechanism!  You should be able to write a reasonable mechanism for the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis reaction of an ester.

Now that we have finished Chapter 17, you should understand all of the reactions that are required to complete the synthesis problems in POD#10 (due by 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday).  You should also be able to complete the "puzzle problem" found in POD#11 (due by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday).

At the end of today's lecture, we started to look at the infrared spectra of various carboxylic acid derivatives.  We'll see how the position of the C=O bond stretch in the IR relates to the structure on Wednesday.  This discussion will also allow us to predict the relative reactivities of carboxylic acid derivatives toward nucleophilic acyl substitution.  We'll learn a lot of new reactions on Wednesday, but all of them follow exactly the same general mechanism, as we will soon see...

Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2008.

Monday, July 28...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer Key for POD#08, POD#10, Chapter 18 Spectroscopy Slides, today's lecture notes

Today, we finished Chapter 16 by completing the mechanism of the haloform reaction.  You should also undestand racemization (Section 16.12A) and deuterium exchange (Section 16.12B), which provide additional examples of the alpha substitution reaction mechanism.  We then turned our attention to carboxylic acids (Chapter 17).  Please read and understand the material in Sections 17.1 through 17.3 (nomenclature and physical properties)!  Know the five different reactions (four of them are review) that yield a carboxylic acid as the major product.  The new preparation reaction, treatment of a Grignard reagent with carbon dioxide, is useful in synthesis because it also produces a new carbon-carbon bond.

The most important chemical property of carboxylic acids is their Bronsted-Lowry acidity.  Review Chapter 4 if you do not remember the five structural factors that are important for influencing acid strength!  We also spent a bit of time discussing how the electron-donating or electron-withdrawing resonance effect of a substituent on the aromatic ring can affect the acidity of a substituted benzoic acid.  Finally, we started to look at the reactions of carboxylic acids, by considering what happens when a carboxylic acid is exposed to LiAlH₄, followed by an acid workup (hydride reduction).

On Tuesday, we'll look at some other important reactions of carboxylic acids.  One of these reactions will introduce our next fundamentally important reaction mechanism (nucleophilic acyl substitution).  Once we finish Chapter 17, you will be equipped to solve the synthesis problems that are part of POD#10 (due on Wednesday by 3:00 p.m.).  We'll then turn our attention to the structures of carboxylic acid derivatives (Chapter 18).  We'll see that the position of the C=O stretch in the IR spectrum is influenced by the structure - the slides that we'll refer to during this discussion have been posted for your convenience.  The argument that we'll use to rationalize the relative position of the C=O stretch will also be useful for allowing us to predict the relative reactivities of these compounds...

Posted on Monday, July 28, 2008.

Friday, July 25...

The following new items have been posted:  POD#08, POD#09, Chapter 17 Spectroscopy Slides, today's lecture notes

POD#08 (due on Monday at 3:00 p.m.) asks you to think about the mechanism of the first part of the Wolff-Kishner reduction, which we discussed in lecture on Wednesday, 7/23.  POD#09 (due on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.) is also a mechanism problem.  We won't ever discuss this exact reaction in lecture, but if you understand the reactivity of the alpha position of aldehydes and ketones (today's lecture), you should be able to propose a reasonable mechanism.

Today, we saw that when the alpha carbon (adjacent to the carbonyl group) of an aldehyde or ketone is bonded to at least one hydrogen atom, the "keto" form will be in equilibrium with an "enol."  This tautomerization reaction is catalyzed either by acid (CATIONIC intermediates), or by base (ANIONIC intermediates).  Even though this equilibrium strongly favors the "keto" form, the seemingly insigificant amount of "enol" present is actually quite significant!  The carbon-carbon pi bond of an enol is very nucleophilic, so enols react with electrophiles.  If the enol is consumed in this way, the "keto" form will eventually be consumed as well (because of Le Chatelier's principle) - the net outcome is replacement of an alpha hydrogen atom with whatever the electrophile is.  Alpha substitution is thus the second fundamentally important reaction mechanism observed for aldehydes and ketones.

For the time being, the most important alpha substitution reaction to understand is alpha halogenation.  In acid, only one alpha hydrogen atom is replaced by a halogen atom.  We worked through this mechanism in detail to understand why.  In base, all of the alpha hydrogen atoms are replaced by halogen atoms.  When a methyl ketone is used as the starting material, however, this substitution product cannot be isolated.  It reacts further to yield a carboxylate anion, and a haloform.  We'll finish looking at the detailed mechanism of this "haloform reaction" on Monday.

Also on Monday, we'll begin our discussion of carboxylic acids (Chapter 17).  The spectroscopy slides have been posted - you might want to bring these with you to lecture.  You might also want to review Chapter 4 (acids and bases) if it gave you trouble in Organic I - the structural factors that affect acid strength will be very important to understand since the most important chemical property of the carboxylic acid functional group is their Bronsted-Lowry acidity!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Posted on Friday, July 25, 2008.

Midterm Exam #1 Grades...

...HAVE BEEN UPLOADED TO THE BLACKBOARD GRADEBOOK

Exam Statistics:
Avg Raw Score = 211.94 (70.65%)
St Dev = 39.30 (13.10%)
High Raw Score = 296
135 students took the exam

The exam questions and answer key have been posted.  Graded exams will be returned AFTER LECTURE on Friday, July 25.  The deadline to submit all regrade requests for Part II of the exam is 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 29.  To submit a regrade, please follow the instructions given in the "Exam Pickup & Regrade Policies" handout.

POD#08 has also been posted.  The deadline to submit this homework is 3:00 p.m. on Monday, July 28.  This problem asks you to think about the mechanism of the first part of the Wolff-Kishner reduction, which we discussed in lecture on Wednesday, 7/23...

Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008.

Monday, July 21...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer key for POD#05, POD#07, notes from today's lecture

Understanding whether a nucleophilic addition reaction occurs in acid or in base is very important for understanding the mechanism!  Under basic conditions, an anionic nucleophile reacts directly at the carbonyl carbon atom.   In acid, the mechanism is more complicated - the carbonyl group is "activated" when the oxygen atom is protonated.  The resulting cation is a resonance hybrid, and the less important resonance structure is consistent with the fact that protonation of a carbonyl oxygen atom causes the carbonyl carbon atom to become significantly more reactive towards nucleophiles.

After we looked in detail at the mechanism of acid-catalyzed hydration, we spent some time discussing why aldehydes are more reactive than comparable ketones, why aromatic substituents on a carbonyl group cause it to become less reactive toward nucleophiles, and finally why nearby electron-withdrawing substituents cause a carbonyl group to become more reactive toward nucleophiles.  Learn to recognize these patterns, and the reasons for them - we'll see them again later on in the course.

We ended today's lecture by looking at Grignard addition and hydride reduction, two irreversible nucleophilic addition reactions.  Tomorrow, we'll turn our attention to transformations that are somewhat more complicated.  Frequently, the direct product of nucleophilic addition cannot be isolated, because it undergoes further reaction.  What type of further reaction???  Our old friends S_N1 and E1 will revisit us in a big way tomorrow.  Once we get through tomorrow's reactions you should be able to tackle POD#07, which is another round of synthesis...

Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008.

Friday, July 18...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer key for POD#04, POD#06, notes from today's lecture, Solving Synthesis Problems in Organic Chemistry (online handout)

We finished our introduction to organometallic compounds today, by looking at Gilman reagents, carbenes, and carbenoids.  Now that we have finished looking at all of the new reactions in Chapter 15, you should be able to use them to solve synthesis problems.  This is exactly what you will need to do in POD#05 (due on Monday at 3:00 p.m.).  It is always best to perform a retrosynthetic analysis before you attempt to devise a sequence of reactions in the forward direction.  The online handout from Organic I has been reposted to remind you how to do this...

During second half of lecture, we started looking at aldehydes and ketones (Chapter 16).  We didn't discuss the nomenclature in Section 16.2, but you should know this material!  We did look briefly at the spectroscopic properties of these functional groups, and I also reminded you of reactions that you already know which give an aldehyde or ketone as the major product.

The most important reaction mechanism observed for aldehydes and ketones is nucleophilic addition to the carbonyl group.  We ended our first week of class by looking at two specific transformations which illustrate this mechanism.  We worked through the detailed mechanism of cyanohydrin formation, which occurs under basic conditions.  On Monday, we'll look in detail at the mechanism of acid-catalyzed hydration, which occurs under acidic conditions.  Both of these reactions are reversible - POD#06 (due at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday) asks you to propose a mechanism for the reverse of the cyanohydrin formation reaction...

Have a great weekend!

Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008.

Thursday, July 17...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer key for POD#03, POD#05, notes from today's lecture

We spent the first portion of today's lecture looking at 2 examples which illustrate how to solve spectroscopy "puzzle" problems.  This is exactly what you need to do in POD#04 (due by 3:00 p.m. on Friday).

We also looked at two very important classes of organometallic compounds - Grignard reagents and organolithium compounds.  Both of these kinds of reagents act as de facto sources of a carbanion, and therefore open up the door to a wide variety of new carbon-carbon bond forming reactions.  For instance RMgX or RLi will react with an epoxide to yield an alcohol that contains a new carbon-carbon bond.  We have to be careful when using organometallic reagents in synthesis, however, since they are susceptible to protonolysis.  They are very strongly basic, so the presence of another functional group that can act as a proton donor (like an alcohol or a carboxylic acid) will lead to an acid-base reaction that typically interferes with the desired outcome.

On Friday, we'll finish Chapter 15 by looking at Gilman reagents, carbenes, and carbenoids.  After you study the Chapter 15 reactions this weekend, you should be able to tackle the synthesis problems given in POD#05 (due by 3:00 p.m. on Monday).  Then, after a brief discussion of their spectroscopy, we'll start looking at the chemistry of aldehydes and ketones.  Get ready for a completely new (and extremely important) fundamental reaction mechanism...

Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008.

Wednesday, July 16...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer key for POD#02, POD#04, notes from today's lecture, Unsaturation Number (online handout), Chapter 16 spectroscopy slides

Today, we finished our discussion of ¹H NMR by looking at the relationship of chemical shift to structure, and spin-spin splitting.  We also looked at ¹³C NMR.  Now that we have finished looking at all of the theory in Chapter 13, you should be able to start working on the problems at the end of the Chapter.  We'll work through a couple of additional example problems at the beginning of lecture on Thursday to illustrate the logic that you'll need to use.  This is the way that you will need to think to solve POD#04 (due by 3:00 p.m. on Friday), which is a spectroscopy "puzzle" problem.  Each bit of spectroscopic or chemical data essentially provides a "piece" of the puzzle. With practice, you will learn how to use the data to figure out what the "pieces" are, and how to fit them together in away that gives a reasonable structure that is also consistent with the data. Since you'll always be given the molecular formula, it is always a good idea to begin by calculating the unsaturation number!

Also on Thursday, we'll shift gears entirely, and return to a discussion of some chemistry!  We'll look at several different kinds of organometallic compounds, all of which will be very useful in synthesis.  Get ready to learn some important new carbon-carbon bond forming reactions!

Chapter 15 is pretty short - if we don't finish it on Thursday, we will finish it fairly early during Friday's lecture.  When we start to discuss aldehydes and ketones on Friday, we'll spend a few minutes looking at the spectroscopy of these functional groups.  The Chapter 16 spectroscopy slides have been posted - you may want to bring them with you to lecture on Friday to help you follow along.

Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008.

Tuesday, July 15...

The following new items have been posted:  Answer key for POD#01, POD#03, notes from today's lecture

Today, we finished discussing IR spectroscopy, and started looking at NMR spectroscopy.  IR alone does not generally give enough information to deduce the entire structure of an unknown compound.  If you have several possible structures, however, IR can often be used to distinguish them (as you need to do in POD#02).  Remember, the various functional groups have characteristic vibrational motions associated with them, so each functional group typically gives rise to characteristic bands in the IR spectrum.  Be careful, though - sometimes symmetry causes a vibration to be IR inactive, so the absence of a characteristic band does not necessarily correspond to the absence of a particular functional group.

A key conclusion that we reached in our discussion of NMR is that nonequivalent protons typically give rise to different signals in a proton NMR spectrum.  We discussed how to use a substitution test to determine the relationship between any two protons in a molecule.  This is what you'll need to do in POD#03.  Stereochemistry is important here - you may need to review Chapters 3 and 5 if you do not remember how to determine stereochemical relationships.

Tomorrow, we'll finish discussing the relationship of chemical shift to structure, and we'll learn how to interpret the splitting patterns that are commonly encountered in proton NMR.  We'll also look briefly at carbon NMR.  Once we have this theory under our belts, it will be possible to tackle some more complicated spectroscopy "puzzle" problems.  Stay tuned....

Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008.

What Do I Need to Remember???

Remember, organic chemistry is a cumulative subject! You are expected to remember all of the chemistry you learned in the first semester course. Please look at the handout "What Do I Need to Remember from Organic I?"  If you have any questions about any topics from Organic I, please come to office hours as soon as possible.

Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008.

Spectroscopy Handouts

For the first several lectures, Powerpoint presentations will be used (you'll understand why when we start to discuss spectroscopy). You may find it useful to print out the slides for the material presented in Chapters 12 and 13, and bring them with you to lecture. These slides are available in two different formats - Large format (1 slide per page) and Small format (4 slides per page)

Chapter 12 Slides:  Large Format | Small Format

Chapter 13 Slides:  Large Format | Small Format

The "Exam Appendix", which includes spectrsocopic data, pKa values, and the periodic table that you will be given during exams, is also available now. You may find it helpful to refer to this handout as you begin to work through spectroscopy homework problems.

Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008.

Welcome to OChem II

Welcome to the continuing story of Organic Chemistry! Please take some time to explore the course web site, by following the links provided in the menu above. In particular, please be sure to look at the course syllabus, which contains a ton of useful and important information. Copies of the syllabus will be distributed at the first class meeting on Monday, July 14.

Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008.