Organic Chemistry

  Infrared Spectroscopy ** Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a simple, rapid, and nondestructive instrumental technique that can give evidence for the presence of various functional groups. If you had a sample of unknown identity, among the first things you would do is obtain an infrared spectrum, along with determining its …

  Bond Breaking and Bond Making   ** Having now learned how to write and identify some common kinds of organic reactions, we can turn to a discussion of reaction mechanism. **  A reaction mechanism is a detailed description of how bonds are broken and formed as a starting material …

  Safety In The Laboratory There is necessarily a degree of risk associated with any work in a chemical laboratory.  Accidents can and do happen. Strict adherence to the following rules will go far toward preventing (or minimizing the effect of ) accidents: (1)Before you begin work in any laboratory, …

    ** Like other compounds, organic molecules undergo acid–base and oxidation–reduction reactions. ** Organic molecules also undergo substitution, elimination, and addition reactions.. (1) Substitution Reactions ** Substitution is a reaction in which an atom or a group of atoms is replaced by another atom or group of atoms.   …

  Writing Equations for Organic Reactions   (1) Like other reactions, equations for organic reactions are usually drawn with a single reaction arrow (→) between the starting material and product, but other conventions make these equations look different from those encountered in general chemistry. (2) The reagent, the chemical substance …

 Solubility ** Intermolecular forces are of primary importance in explaining the solubilities of substances. ** Dissolution of a solid in a liquid is, in many respects, like the melting of a solid. The orderly crystal structure of the solid is destroyed, and the result is the formation of the more disorderly arrangement …

** The forces that act between molecules are not as strong as those between ions, but they account for the fact that even completely nonpolar molecules can exist in liquid and solid states.These intermolecular forces, collectively called van der Waals forces, are all electrical in nature. ** We will focus our attention …

    ** So far, we have said little about one of the most obvious characteristics of organic compounds— that is, their physical state or phase. Whether a particular substance is a solid, or a liquid, or a gas would certainly be one of the first observations that we would …

Dipole moment   ** The dipole moment is a physical property that can be measured experimentally. ** It is defined as the product of the magnitude of the charge in electrostatic units (esu) and the distance that separates them in centimeters (cm):   ** The charges are typically on the order of 10-10 esu …

  Polar Covalent Bonds   ** Covalent bonds form by sharing of electrons between atoms of similar electronegativities to achieve the configuration of a noble gas. ** If we have a compounds such as LiF in which the bond is between two atoms with very large electronegativity differences. In instances …

  How To Predict Molecular Geometry: VSEPR model   ** We can predict the arrangement of atoms in molecules and ions on the basis of a relatively simple idea called the valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) model. ** We apply the VSEPR model in the following way: (1) We …

  Important concepts in Hybridization    (1) An atomic orbital (AO) corresponds to a region of space about the nucleus of a single atom where there is a high probability of finding an electron. Atomic orbitals called s orbitals are spherical; those called p orbitals are like two almost-tangent spheres. Orbitals can hold …

The Structure of  Ethyne (Acetylene): sp Hybridization ** Hydrocarbons in which two carbon atoms share three pairs of electrons between them, and are thus bonded by a triple bond, are called alkynes. The two simplest alkynes are ethyne and propyne.   ** Ethyne, a compound that is also called acetylene, …

  The Structure of Ethene (Ethylene): sp2 Hybridization   ** The carbon atoms of many of the molecules that we have considered so far have used their four valence electrons to form four single covalent (sigma) bonds to four other atoms. ** We find, however, that many important organic compounds …

    ** The (s) and (p) orbitals used in the quantum mechanical description of the carbon atom, were based on calculations for hydrogen atoms. These simple (s) and (p) orbitals do not, when taken alone, provide a satisfactory model for the tetravalent–tetrahedral carbon of methane. ** However, a satisfactory …