Master Organic Chemistry

Alcohols (1) – Nomenclature and Properties

September 17, 2014 By James Ashenhurst 1 Comment

In this next series of posts we are going to discuss the reactions of alcohols. As a functional group, alcohols are introduced fairly early in organic chemistry. Their reactions, however, are usually not covered until near the end of Org 1 - at least after subjects like substitution and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alcohols, Nomenclature, Organic Chemistry 2 Tagged With: alcohols, boiling points, hydrogen bonding, nomenclature, primary, secondary, tertiary, water solubility

Polar Protic? Polar Aprotic? Nonpolar? All About Solvents

April 27, 2012 By James Ashenhurst 70 Comments

A lot of students I talk to have questions about solvents, so I've decided to put together a reference post on them. Solvents can cause considerable confusion in reactions, because they're listed along with the reagents of a reaction but often don't actually participate in the reaction itself. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Organic Chemistry 1, Organic Chemistry 2 Tagged With: dmf, dmso, hydrogen bonding, mecn, nucleophiles, polar aprotic, polar protic, solvents, thf

3 Trends That Affect Boiling Points

October 25, 2010 By James Ashenhurst 79 Comments

Now available - Download this awesome (free) 3-page handout on how to solve common boiling point problems.  With 10 examples of solved problems! (Also contains all the key points discussed in this post) Download MOC Boiling Point Handout (PDF) Figuring out the order of boiling points is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alcohols, Chemical Bonds, Functional Groups, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry 1, Where Electrons Are Tagged With: boiling points, branching, dipoles, electronegativity, electrostatics, hydrogen bonding, intramolecular, ionic bonding, van der waals

Meet the (Most Important) Functional Groups

October 6, 2010 By James Ashenhurst 13 Comments

Functional groups are specific groupings of atoms within molecules that have their own characteristic properties, regardless of the other atoms present in a molecule. Common examples are alcohols, amines, carboxylic acids, ketones, and ethers. In a typical sophomore organic chemistry course, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Functional Groups, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry 1, Where Electrons Are Tagged With: dipoles, electronegativity, functional groups, hydrogen bonding, polarity

The Four Intermolecular Forces and How They Affect Boiling Points

October 1, 2010 By James Ashenhurst 23 Comments

Properties like melting and boiling points are a measure of how strong the attractive forces are between individual atoms or molecules. (We call these intermolecular forces - forces between molecules, as opposed to intramolecular forces -  forces within a molecule. ) It all flows from this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alcohols, Functional Groups, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry 1 Tagged With: boiling points, dipoles, electronegativity, hydrogen bonding, intermolecular, ionic bonding, opposite charges attract, polarizability, solvents, van der waals

Keto-Enol Tautomerism: Key Points

April 12, 2010 By James Ashenhurst 21 Comments

Aldehydes and ketones are  somewhat lycanthropic chemical species.  Take acetone. It behaves as a garden-variety polar aprotic solvent, which makes it a useful medium for SN2 reactions;  it reacts readily with nucleophiles like enolates, Grignards, and amines; and is several pKa units less acidic … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Aldehydes, Chemical Bonds, Esters, Ketones, Organic Chemistry 2 Tagged With: aldehydes, carbonyls, electrophiles, enol, enolates, hydrogen bonding, ketones, Key Concepts, nucleophiles, tautomerism, tautomers

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