Structure and Reactivity Premaster Course

Course manual 2021/2022

Course content

The course consists of 14 two-hour lectures and covers the most important concepts and knowledge concerning basic organic and inorganic chemistry. 

In the first 7 lectures (organic chemistry part), 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

In the last 7 lectures, basic concepts of coordination compounds and d-metal complexes will be treated.

The following chapters from the text book will be studied:

Lecture 8 Chapters 1-3: Atomic and molecular structure, symmetry

Lecture 9 Chapter 7: Coordination compounds; coord numbers, isomerism,thermodynamics.

Lecture 10 Chapter 7:  Chapter 19.1-2 Coord. compounds and d-block elements

Lecture 11 Chapter 20.1: d-metal complexes, electronic structure

Lecture 12 Chapter 20.2-3: d-metal complexes, bonding

Lecture 13 Chapter 20.5-6: d-metal complexes, electronic transitions

Lecture 14  Chapter 21.1-3: Mechanism of substitution 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).

• Weller, Overton, Rourke, Armstrong, "Inorganic Chemistry" 7th edition (or newer if available); Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-19-876812-8

Objectives

• The students can redict 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.
• The students can provide the correct IUPAC name of a compound from formula and vice versa.
• The students can predict basic structures from VSEP and vice-versa for small inorganic molecules, determine whether a molecule has a dipole moment or not, and estimate deviations from ideal geometries based on steric number, VSEP and related matter for small inorganic molecules.
• The students can apply crystal field, atomic and molecular orbital theory to simple inorganic compounds.
• The students are able to find, starting from formula or molecyular structure, the electron count, symmetry, electronic configuration of coordination compounds.
• The students can describe the bonding in inorganic molecules and ions based on crystal field and ligand field parameters.
• The students can obtain and draw orbital energy diagrams for inorganic molecules of high symmetry.
• The students can calculate energies and ligand field stabilization energies from crystal field and ligand field theory and some of their implications and use in inorganic and coordination chemistry, e.g. bonding, spectra.
• The students can apply basics of structure and kinetics to describe the mechanism of inorganic substitution reactions, in part based on implications of ligand field stabilized systems, as wel as on steric arguements.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Self-study

Learning activities

Assessment

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

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. Tati Fernández Ibáñez

Staff

• prof. dr. C.J. Elsevier