Archive for the "Organic Chemistry General" Category

This is part 1 of a four part series in the Energy Diagram Module.

In order to talk about reaction mechanisms, we have to first understand what makes up a reaction. It may help to think of a reaction as a landscape.  Let us look at the components in Graph 1 below.

• the x-axis as the reaction proceeds (the reaction coordinate).
• The potential energy of the molecules throughout the reaction along the y-axis.
• The shape of the line graph represents the pathway (or mechanism) by which the reactants must take to reach the products.
• Using the landscape analogy, reactants and products that are stable can be thought of as the “valleys”, which have some potential energy (refer to Graph 1).
• As reactants collide during the course of a reaction, they must go over a “hill” in order to each the product of the reaction.  This hill represents the energy needed to break the existing bonds in the reactions (the activation energy, ΔG^‡)
• At the top of the hill, some hybrid molecule (the transition state, [ ]‡) is formed which represents the simultaneous (often referred to as concerted) bond breaking and bond forming.  Because of the hybrid nature of the molecule, transition states are NOT isolatable.

The activation energy is usually provided by sum of the surrounding system and the collision of the reactant molecules. For reactions with high activation energy barriers, a Bunsen burner or heating element can be used to add energy.  Looking at Graph 2, as transition states form, the reaction can “roll” downhill both ways, backwards to reactants or forwards to products. As products begin to form, which as illustrated is much lower in energy than the reactants, the net release of energy (the heat of reaction, ΔH⁰) is released back to the surrounding system in the form of heat (enthalpy).

Graph 1

(click on photo to enlarge)

Graph 2

(click on photo to enlarge)

So you want to know the secret to getting an “A” in Organic chemistry? Let me tell you the fail-proof method of conquering what many deem the most difficult class in undergraduate studies.

Are you ready?

Well, here it is, here is the trick to pulling the Ace:

Studying

Not the answer you were expecting? I mean there’s got to be an easier way, right? Well sorry to disappoint you, but the only way you will see that “A” on your transcript next to Organic chemistry is by good old fashion studying. Of course just telling students to study is easier said than done. Organic chemistry is not something that most of us can inherently pick up and understand. Let me elaborate a little on this simple word, studying.

Here at StudyOrgo.com we teach a proven method that has our students scoring in the top of their class, however they still take the time to learn and comprehend the material a by studying.  We give them the secret sauce though, making it easier and their study time more efficient.

Organic chemistry is a lot of information. Probably more information than most students have been required to know for any class up to this point. It is not enough to just try to memorize all the reactions, names, and concepts. Many students who have tried this method end up not doing as well as they’d like. You cannot memorize Organic chemistry, you must understand the information, which you can accomplish with rigorous studying.

As a student, you must have a strong understanding of some very fundamental chemical phenomena. We make this easy using our Summary Guides that we call “Benny’s Notes”.

Just to name a few of the most repeating concepts in Organic chemistry, you must understand what acids and bases do (which protonates and which depronates?), which elements are electronegative, what are partial charges and dipoles, and one of the most important concepts, how an atoms electrons interact with a chemical system.

If you understand and have these ideas down, you will have no problems doing your first reaction mechanism. Much of your studying will consist of doing a handful of reactions over and over again until you completely understand them. Our online organic chemistry flashcard system will have you understanding the reactions backwards and forwards in no time. We have an iPhone app too that makes studying on the go even easier.

At that point, it will not be memorization though, it will be complete understanding. You will become familiar with why certain atoms behave the way they do, and often times atoms behave the same way  in many reactions, so there is overlapping information.

This is the secret to studying Organic chemistry, you must understand the reactions, do not try to memorize them! You are now an enlightened individual and have the key to success in Organic chemistry. Now let’s talk a little bit about how you should study and what tools you can use to help. After every lecture, it is pertinent that you review your notes before the next lecture. The information will become much easier to digest in smaller bits than waiting until 4 lectures have passed to review the information. Your notes will highlight the main ideas that you as a student are responsible to know. Go over them, practice them, do not stop until you understand the information.

If something does not make sense, find something to use as a reference. Here at StudyOrgo.com, we highlight and cover the main reactions that first semester Organic chemistry students MUST know for their exams. StudyOrgo.com will be your best friend when studying. Not sure how to how to form an alcohol or what product is formed if you oxidize an alcohol? StudyOrgo.com has you covered. Under the “What’s Covered” tab, you will find a list of all of the topics and reactions that our program covers. We can help you learn the material from scratch or just simply use us as a source of  practice problems for everything your professor is likely to cover in class, giving you an upper hand.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, that is the secret to scoring an “A” in Organic chemistry. So what are you waiting for, shouldn’t you be studying?

Get started today and take 10% off if you sign up today using coupon code “acespring”.  We offer a 100% Guarantee to pass!

“I aced orgo last semester, thanks Dan!” – Shane O’Connor, FB

Hello students! So many of you are likely in the home stretch of Organic Chemistry class and the final exam is rapidly approaching.

Here are three importnat items to consider when studying for the final exam:

1) Find out exactly what is on the exam

This sounds simple, but we cannot stress enough the importance of finding out exactly what you are expcted to know on your final. Most of the time the final exam is cumulative, however sometimes it is not. In addition, sometimes the exam focuses on the later part of the semseter- possibly on information that was not tested on prior exams for the course.

2) Know every reaction backwards and forwards

Final exams love to ask you questions that require you to draw upon a vast background of knowledge. Therefore, you must know each organic chemistry reaction backwards and forwards. Consider this:

Organic chemistry reactions are presented in the following basic framework:

A+B→C

Or

Reactant A + Reactant B → Product

In order to truly learn organic chemistry you must know not just how to determine the product from the two reactants (determine C if given A and B), you must know how to determine A if given B and C and to determine B if given A and C.

This leads to the following blanks:

A+B→?

?+B→C

A+?→C

Traditional flashcards in organic chemistry only present A + B → ?

Most students will only try to memorize what product you will get when adding two items together. While this is certainly important, that’s only 1/3 of the subject material! That means that you are only 1/3 prepared for your examination. Professors are aware that students typically fall into this trap and will try to trick students on exam day by eliciting knowledge they don’t have because they only learned each reaction in this simplified format.

With StudyOrgo.com’s Quiz Mode (members only) you can now master each entire reaction no matter what information is supplied to you. This is because you can choose what part of the reaction you would like to be tested on. You can even have this change randomly throughout the quiz.

3) See the big picture

We recommend beginning by going through each chapter and learning the reactions and concepts individually. However, the most crucial step to mastering organic chemistry is being able to synthesize the information and make connections between the various reactions.  Begin by taking a sheet of paper and drawing out all of the reactions. Then draw arrows to see how they interrelate. We already took care of this for you– check out the StudyOrgo.com Reaction Roadmap. Members have access to it here: http://www.studyorgo.com/roadmap.php 

If you are not yet a member, you can sign up by visiting: https://www.studyorgo.com/signup.php

Happy Studying!

Don’t loose sleep trying to understand Ozonolysis. Here is the StudyOrgo.com way of simplifying Ozonolysis:

• Ozonolysis Overall Big Picture:
  • Reduction: Alkene →  Ketones and/or Aldehydes
  • Oxidation: Alkene → Ketones and/or Carboxylic acids

• Depicted here is an ozonolysis reduction reaction:

• A trick to figuring out the products of the Ozonolysis Reduction reactions is to simply squeeze two oxygens at the center of the starting alkene and that separates out your two products. We drew out the products facing each other to more easily visualize this.

• Depicted here is an ozonolysis oxidation reaction:

• • A trick to figuring out the products of the Ozonolysis Oxidation reactions is similar to the trick of Ozonolysis Reduction described above. Simply squeeze two oxygens at the center of the starting alkene and that separates out your two products. However, you must also add an oxygen before the hydrogen in any resulting aldehyde to make it a carboxylic acid. We drew out the products facing each other to more easily visualize this.

• Key Tip: In general, ozonolysis reactions have two stages of adding reactants. The first is to add ozone (O₃). The second determines whether the reaction will proceed as reduction or oxidation. A reactant such as (CH₃)₂S will promote reduction, while a reactant such as H₂O₂ orwarm, concentrated KMnO₄ will promote oxidation.

• Beware! Ozonolysis problems can be challenging at times, and as such professors will test these problems in a variety of different ways. One classic way of testing ozonolysis is to provide the two products and ask the student to determine which starting alkene underwent ozonolysis to produce the given products. This is why the StudyOrgo.com unique reaction flashcard method is so valuable. We recommend that in addition to learning the reaction by revealing the first and second windows then determining the last window, that students reveal the middle and last windows and try to determine the first.

• This can be practiced by creating custom quizes in the unique StudyOrgo.com Quiz Mode. Learn more about it and Sign-Up today!