Faculty of Science

Objectives

To focus on the rationalisation of observations in organic chemical structure and to examine kinetic problems in organic chemistry as well as to survey the salient features in the synthesis of organic compounds.

Contents

The generation, chemical and physical properties of highly reactive intermediates such as radicals, arynes, carbenes, nitrenes, carbocations and anions; Molecular conformations; effects that govern reactivity and stability; Insights from molecular orbital theory; Frontier Molecular Orbitals; predictions of reaction pathways; General review of synthesis of functional groups: alkenes, alcohols, ethers, thiols, aromatics, aldehydes and ketones, carboxylic acids and derivatives, amines, phenols; Retro-synthesis: basic concepts, chemo-selectivity and protecting groups, regio-selectivity, stereo-selectivity; applications of retro-synthetic analysis to some selected natural products; linear free energy relationships; introduction to the chemistry of heterocyclic compounds.