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CHEM 4310
Course Title:
Advanced Organic Chemistry
This course will be an elective for the Minor in Chemistry, and will eventually be an elective or
required upper-level division course for the Major in Chemistry as that is developed. As we
already offer the 2000-level year-long series of Organic Chemistry, there will be a number of
students well-prepared to take this class to complete requirements for the Minor and Major in
Chemistry.
1. Predict the conformational preferences of common organic structures accounting for steric
and electronic interactions
2. Assign symmetry elements to molecules and determine symmetry point groups
3. Describe stereochemical relationships and predict stereochemical outcomes for organic
reactions
4. Make logical predictions about the reactivity patterns to be expected from organic molecules
5. Predict relative acidity of molecules
6. Write kinetic rate laws for reactions and use these to evaluate proposed reaction mechanisms
7. Draw molecular orbital diagrams for simple organic molecules
8. Use Frontier Molecular Orbitals to understand and predict reactions
9. Determine whether a pericyclic reaction is thermally or photochemically allowed using
Molecular Orbital theory
10. Learn to predict the products formed in various classes of pericyclic reactions
11. Propose reasonable explanations for observed products
12. Propose informative and incisive experimental tests to distinguish between mechanistic
proposals
Molecular Orbitals
Stereochemistry
Conformational Energies
Mechanistic Analysis
Nucleophilic Substitution
Addition-Elimination
Carbanions
Carbonyl Compounds
Aromaticity
Aromatic Substitution
Cycloaddition Reactions
Reactions of Radicals
Organic Photochemistry
Assessment will include individual and group assignments (25% of total grade), exams (25% of
total grade), a final exam (20% of total grade), participation in class discussions (10%), and a
report/proposal based current topics and reports in the scientific literature (20%).
March's Advanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions, Mechanisms, and Structure, 7th ed.
Michael Smith
Wiley (2013)
ISBN-13: 978-0470462591
Other Information:
Areas in bold are required.