Course Objectives for Final Exam
Organic Chemistry I
Chem 243
Fall 2011
The exam will cover, primarily the material from chapters 10-12 covered in class. Much of this material builds on previous chapters, so be sure you have a solid knowledge of all the fundamental material in the course. As usual, reactions make up a major part of the exam. Good luck!
Reactions.
Know the fundamental reactions of alcohols including halogenation, oxidation, acidity, basicity etc. Always be aware of the possibility of rearrangements.
Know the reactions of acyclic and cyclic ethers, including various cleavage reactions.
Know the various methods of alcohol and ether preparation, including oxidation and reduction reactions.
Be able to recognize oxidation and reduction reagents and which are stronger and which have a more controlled activity.
Know about free radical substitution reactions and which compounds and sites on molecules are more reactive.
Also, understand organometallic compounds and their preparation and reactions that were covered in class, specifically Grignard reagents and organo lithium compounds.
Be able to follow a sequence of reactions given initial reactants and subsequent reagents.
Know the relative stability of radicals based on primary, secondary and tertiary carbons.
Understand the concept of polymerization from monomer alkenes.
Mechanisms
You should be able to use bond dissociation energy values to provide information on radical reactions including determining the mechanism and rate determining step and enthalpy changes for each step.
Study the Williamson synthesis of ethers and understand the mechanism.
Know the mechanisms for:
ether cleavage, radical substitution.
Spectroscopy.
You should be able to take NMR, IR and MS data and determine the structure of an unknown compound.
You should also understand fragmentation in MS.
Geneeral
In various reactions you should be able to follow the stereochemistry and identify the configurations of any products.
Know the nomenclature of alcohols and ethers.