Physical Organic Chemistry

Catalog description

CHEM 5411 is a high level overview of classical physical organic chemistry. Undergraduate organic chemistry is a prerequisite. The course is divided into three parts. The first part will be an overview of organic bonding (basic molecular orbital theory, anomeric effect), structure (bond lengths, bond angles, conformational analysis), and properties (electronegativity, nucleophilicity, electrophilicity, acidity, basicity). The second part will be a brief overview of current computational methods including molecular mechanics, Hartree Fock, and density functional calculations. The focus will be on practical applications rather than the theory behind the calculations; students will be able to assess which calculations are most appropriate for a given task. The last part of the course will survey thermodynamic and kinetic measurements used in understanding organic chemical reactions. Topics include Hammett analyses, kinetic measurements and interpretation, the Hammond postulate, Arrhenius theory, Eyring theory, and kinetic isotope effects. Articles discussing these techniques in delineating the organic reaction mechanisms for problems of current interest will be analyzed. The focus will be on experiments that can be accomplished with readily available analytical tools (NMR, IR, UV, GC, HPLC) and how simple physical organic analyses can be used to optimize reaction yields and selectivities.