Physical Organic Chemistry II

Catalog description

This course a high level overview of methods for the study of organic, organometallic, and inorganic reaction mechanism. The preceding course Chem 5412 or its equivalent must be taken before this course. The course will briefly review basic mechanistic conventions (arrows, radical intermediates, etc.) and then more onto a survey thermodynamic and kinetic measurements used in understanding chemical reactions. Topics include kinetic measurements and interpretation, Arrhenius theory, Eyring theory, kinetic isotope effects, Hammett analyses, and electronic structure calculations. Articles discussing these techniques in delineating the 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 an undertanding of mechanism can be used to optimize reaction yields and selectivities.