Organic Chemistry I - Honors

Catalog description

Principles and theories; nomenclature; chemistry of the functional groups; applications of spectroscopy. Because of duplication of material, students may not receive credit for both CHEM 210 and 202 . CHEM 210H Organic Chemistry I - Honors (4) Chemistry 210H is the first semester of an in-depth two semester survey of organic chemistry. It should be followed by Chemistry 212H. The concentrated and fast-moving pace of this course is facilitated by four class periods/week, seven (biweekly) hour exams and an evening recitation dedicated to the informal discussion of the subject material covered in previous or pending hour exams. This course will emphasize the mechanistic underpinning of organic chemistry. That is, students will not only learn what happens in organic chemistry but also, and more importantly, why and how. It is hoped that students will develop an intuition for the structure, function and reactivity properties of organic compounds which is of fundamental importance for subsequent studies in the life, material and chemical sciences. The course begins with an introduction to the structural aspects of organic compounds and an appreciation of the three-dimensionality of the subject based upon the important concepts of molecular orbital theory, valence bond theory, hybridization and conformational analysis. Reaction mechanisms and organic synthesis, two important topics that are emphasized throughout the course, are introduced early in the context of addition reactions of alkenes and alkynes. Perhaps the most abstract/vexing topic in organic chemistry is next encountered, namely, stereochemistry. These fundamentals are then used to explore the reactivity properties of various classes of compounds including substitutions and eliminations of alkyl halides, free radical reactions of alkenes, isomerization and cycloadditions of conjugated pi systems, and electrophilic substitution reactions of aromatic compounds.