Organic chemistry, historical perspective

Ogata has asked (in Japanese) the question What kind of learning is physical organic chemistry Its history, main themes, and research trends are said to be described.432 Bhatt has written on physical organic chemistry-retrospect and prospect.433 As Tetrahedron Perspective Number 1, a fascinating article by J A. Berson434 describes some of the historical background of the diene synthesis and the orbital symmetry conservation rules. 

It is not our intention to present an exhaustive review of this important subject. Up-to-date reviews are provided elsewhere [38,37]. The classic review by Garten and Weiss [41 ] offers an excellent historical perspective. We do need to summarize here the issues that are essential for understanding the aqueous-phase adsorption phenomena. The main features of carbon surface chemistry are presented first and the con.sequent acid/base behavior of carbons is briefly discus.sed to illustrate their amphoteric character. In Section III it is shown that these phenomena often govern the adsorption of most inorganic compounds. In Section IV we argue that these phenomena can be dominant in the adsorption of organic compounds as well, but they are more often only a part of the whole story. 

To place this in historical perspective, John Quincy Adams was the U.S. President at the time. The following year, Friedrich Wohler reported that the organic compound urea could be made from the inorganic reagents HOCN and NH3—the birth of organic chemistry. 

Ozone reacts with alkenes (olefins) through addition to the double bond. The initially formed ozonides decompose further. Schbnbein appears to have performed the first such identified ozonolysis (on ethylene). Turpentine is a complex mixture of olefinic terpenes (see P.S. Bailey, Ozonation in Organic Chemistry, Academic Press, New York, 1978, pp. 1—4, for a brief historical perspective). 

Environmental organic chemistry is a rapidly expanding subject and one that allows many perspectives. Environmental chemistry historically grew out of analytical chemistry and the ability of analytical chemists to detect very low concentrations of pollutants, especially chlorinated organic compounds, in complex matrices such as soils, atmospheric particles, and animal tissues. The discovery that such pollutants are transported throughout the world, and that some are highly persistent in the environment, led to increasing interest in the fates of such compounds in nature. 

The monograph is organized essentially in three parts. The first four chapters cover the basic materials. The book starts with a historical perspective and commentary followed by discussions on the principles governing electron, energy transfer, photocatalysis and the chemistry of the charge transfer excited state. Next five chapters deal with the photochemistry of classical/Wemer-type coordination compounds and their applications. Polypyridine complexes by and large received major scrutiny. A survey of their photochemistry is followed by two key recent applications ... 

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