Organic Structure and Reactivity Premaster Course

Course manual 2022/2023

Course content

The course consists of 7 two-hour lectures and covers the most important concepts and knowledge concerning basic organic. 

Reactions at carbonyls, the concept of delocalization, structure-acid/base relationships, nucleophilic substitutions, eliminations, electrophilic substitutions and reactions of enols/enolates will be treated. Chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity will be an important thread in the course.

The following chapters from the Clayden text book will be studied:

lecture 1 Chapter 6: Nucleophilic addition to the carbonyl group ; Chapter 7: Delocalization and conjugation

lecture 2 Chapter 8: Acidity, basicity, and pKa

Lecture 3  Chapter 10: Nucleophilic substitution at the carbonyl group; Chapter 11: Nucleophilic substitution at C=O with loss of carbonyl oxygen

Lecture 4 Chapter 15: Nucleophilic substitution at saturated carbon;  Chapter 17: Elimination reactions

Lecture 5 Chapter 19: Electrophilic addition to alkenes;  Chapter 21: Electrophilic aromatic substitution

Lecture 6 Chapter 20: Formation and reactions of enols and enolates; Chapter 25: Alkylation of enolates

Lecture 7 Chapter 26: Reactions of enolates with carbonyl compounds: the aldol and Claisen reactions

Study materials

Literature

• Clayden, Greeves and Warren, 'Organic Chemistry', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, ISBN 978-0-19-927029-3, chapters 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 25 and 26).

Objectives

• The students can predict how a specific functional group will react under given conditions in terms of nucleophile/electrophile.
• The students can describe the course of a reaction by means of a reaction mechanism using curly arrows.
• The students can predict the stereochemical outcome of a certain reaction.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Self-study

Learning activities

Assessment

Inspection of assessed work

After the grades are announced, a day will be set to check the exam.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

Important note: It is expected that you have a previous knowledge in organic chemistry as we will cover all topics of basic organic chemistry in this 3EC course.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. Tati Fernández Ibáñez