Master Organic Chemistry

An Arrow-Pushing Dilemma In Concerted Reactions

April 5, 2013 By James Ashenhurst 1 Comment

Up to now, drawing out reaction mechanisms using the curved arrow formalism has been fairly straightforward. Yes, sometimes there is some ambiguity with respect to which carbon of a C-C π bond is forming a new bond to an electrophile, but that can be readily solved by adding a few … [Read more...]

Filed Under: AlkeneCC, Alkenes, Drawing Reaction Mechanisms, Organic Chemistry 1, Understanding Electron Flow Tagged With: arrow pushing, arrows, br2, bromination, curved arrows, stereochemistry, transition states

Thermodynamic and Kinetic Control

February 9, 2012 By James Ashenhurst 15 Comments

First, an explanation. This happened. So things at MOC have basically  been on hold for a few weeks. Life is now returning to normal. The following discussion has nothing to do with the above, other than the fact that my dad's best friend wryly observed of him: "When he opened his wallet, moths … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alkenes, Organic Chemistry 2 Tagged With: 1, 2-addition, 4-addition, alkene stability, dienes, kinetic control, reaction coordinates, thermodynamic control, transition states, weird analogies

What’s a Transition State?

November 3, 2010 By James Ashenhurst 8 Comments

Here's a question that comes up a lot: What's a transition state? A transition state is a very short-lived configuration of atoms at a local energy maximum in a reaction-energy diagram (aka reaction coordinate). A transition state has partial bonds, an extremely short lifetime (measured in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry 1, Thermodynamics and Kinetics Tagged With: endothermic, exothermic, Hammond's postulate, intermediates, kinetics, reaction diagrams, reaction rate, transition states

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