Organic chemistry beginnings

Ramsay was a scientist of exceptionally wide interests and talents. Flis earhest works centered on organic chemistry. Beginning in the 1880s, he pursued topics related to physical chemistry, such as stoichiometry, thermodynamics, surface tension, density, molecular weights, and the critical states of hquids and vapors. However, his most important achievements involved inorganic chemistry. 

The industrial preparation of vitamin C involves an unusual blend of biological and laboratory organic chemistry, beginning with glucose and following the five-step route shown in Figure 20.7. Glucose,a pentahydroxy aldehyde, is first reducedto sorbitol,which... 

So far we have emphasized structure in terms of electron bookkeeping We now turn our attention to molecular geometry and will see how we can begin to connect the three dimensional shape of a molecule to its Lewis formula Table 1 6 lists some simple com pounds illustrating the geometries that will be seen most often m our study of organic chemistry... 

The most apparent chemical property of carboxylic acids their acidity has already been examined m earlier sections of this chapter Three reactions of carboxylic acids—con version to acyl chlorides reduction and esterification—have been encountered m pre vious chapters and are reviewed m Table 19 5 Acid catalyzed esterification of carboxylic acids IS one of the fundamental reactions of organic chemistry and this portion of the chapter begins with an examination of the mechanism by which it occurs Later m Sec tions 19 16 and 19 17 two new reactions of carboxylic acids that are of synthetic value will be described... 

Since the six carbons shown above have 10 additional bonds, the variety of substituents they carry or the structures they can be a part of is quite varied, making the Diels-Alder reaction a powerful synthetic tool in organic chemistry. A moment s reflection will convince us that a molecule like structure [XVI] is monofunctional from the point of view of the Diels-Alder condensation. If the Diels-Alder reaction is to be used for the preparation of polymers, the reactants must be bis-dienes and bis-dienophiles. If the diene, the dienophile, or both are part of a ring system to begin with, a polycyclic product results. One of the first high molecular weight polymers prepared by this synthetic route was the product resulting from the reaction of 2-vinyl butadiene [XIX] and benzoquinone [XX] ... 

Nomenclature follows the well-established oxa-aza convention of organic chemistry. Numbering begins with the apex atom of lowest coordination and successive rings or belts of polyhedral vertex atoms are numbered in a clockwise direction with C atoms being given the lowest possible numbers within these rules. ... 

In order to fully appreciate the widespread application that molecular modeling can find in beginning organic chemistry, it is important to appreciate the fundamental relationship between molecular structure and chemical, physical and biological properties. So-called structure-property relationships are explored in nearly every college chemistry course, whether introductory or advanced. Students are first taught about the structures of molecules, and are then taught how to relate structure to molecular properties. 

To understand both organic and biological chemistry, it s necessary to know not just what occurs, but also why and how chemical reactions take place. In this chapter, we ll start with an overview of the fundamental kinds of organic reactions, we ll see why reactions occur, and we ll see how reactions can be described. Once this background is out of the way, we ll then be ready to begin studying the details of organic chemistry. 

Alkyl halides are encountered less frequently than their oxygen-containing relatives alcohols and ethers, but some of the kinds of reactions they undergo—nucleophilic substitutions and eliminations—are encountered frequently. Thus, alkyl halide chemistry acts as a relatively simple model for many mechanistically similar but structurally more complex reactions found in biornolecules. We ll begin in this chapter with a look at how to name and prepare alkyl halides, and we ll see several of their reactions. Then in the following chapter, we ll make a detailed study of the substitution and elimination reactions of alkyl halides—two of the most important and well-studied reaction types in organic chemistry. 

Carboxylic acid derivatives are among the most widespread of all molecules, both in laboratory chemistry and in biological pathways. Thus, a study of them and their primary reaction—nucleophilic acyl substitution—is fundamental to understanding organic chemistry. We ll begin this chapter by first learning about carboxylic acid derivatives, and then we ll explore the chemistry of acyl substitution reactions. 

Nomenclature of complex ions and organic compounds. We believe that this material is of little value in a beginning course. The students promptly forget how to name a complex ion, because they have litde chance to use the rules. The naming of organic compounds seems better left to a course in organic chemistry. 

In addition to reactions, mechanisms, and structure, the student should have some familiarity with the literature of organic chemistry. A chapter devoted to this topic has been placed in Appendix A, though many teachers may wish to cover this material at the beginning of the course. 

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