In organic synthesis, it’s essential to know how to reduce a nitro group (NO2) to an amino group (NH2). There are two primary methods for doing this: catalytic hydrogenation and metal-acid reductions. Catalytic hydrogenation uses hydrogen gas in the presence of a catalyst like palladium in charcoal, platinum, or nickel. These conditions are considered neutral […]

In the world of organic chemistry, understanding how to control enolate reactions is key for successful syntheses. One way to achieve this control is by manipulating the reaction conditions to favor either thermodynamic or kinetic enolates. Let’s delve into what these terms mean and how they can be applied in practice. Thermodynamic Conditions Thermodynamic conditions […]

The Wittig reaction is one of the most significant reactions in organic chemistry, invented by German chemist George Wittig. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for this work in 1979. The Wittig reaction converts a carbonyl group into a double bond using phosphonium ylides. There are three ways to achieve the Wittig reaction: To illustrate […]

Let’s do a reactions recap of what we have learned so far.We’re going to review reactions of lithium, aluminum hydride, sodium borohydride, andwe’re going to go back and review catalytic hydrogenations.In this particular case, we’re only going to focus on hydrogen gas in the presence ofnickel as the catalyst.So these reactions are specifically also when […]

Let’s assign the NMR splittings and I have an analogy that I call a story ofbalconies. Here you have the molecule of 1-propanol that is the structureinside of the rectangle. Here you will have four different proton signals inthe proton NMR. This OH is an exchangeable proton. It is an exchangeablebecause in the presence of […]

Let’s study now the alpha cleavage with carbonyl species and in this case we’ll takea look at the aldehydes, the ketones, and the carboxylic acids.So the molecule on the left side could potentially have two different alpha cleavages, one hereon the right side and one on this side.So we can call this A and B. […]

The next two main reactions that are widely used in organic chemistry are the Suzuki and the Heck reaction.These are palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions.Both of these reactions replace the halogen of a vinylic halide or an aryl halide with a carbon-containing group.So notice that we have here two different halides and we’re adding any carbon group […]

In order to explain the importance of the antiperiplanar proton, let’s consider a love story analogy. In this story, we have a bride who must choose between two suitors – protons A and B. The base represents the young lady’s parents, while the reaction conditions signify the circumstances under which the decision is made. The […]

Now we want to apply our knowledge of the cube method to get thestereochemistry of the Diels-Alder reaction. There are two approaches, theendo approach on the top and the exo approach on the bottom. Depending on whatyou’re asked, if you’re asked, show me the endo approach and the stereochemistryof the following reaction. You have to […]

I told you that Ozone is the only electrophile in this series that will stand up to the bigbully, the nucleophile, or in this case the alkene.I have a question here, what does Ozone tell an alkene before an Ozonolysis?Just to give you an idea, Ozone knows that the nucleophile is going to attack him.He […]

Chirality, derived from the Greek word “handedness,” refers to the property of an object that cannot be superimposed onto its mirror image. In organic chemistry, a chiral carbon is one with four different groups attached to it. If two groups are identical, the molecule loses its chirality. A classic example of chirality is our hands. […]