Free Direct Books: Two Hundred Exercises in Mechanistic Organic Chemistry

Free Direct Download Two Hundred Exercises in Mechanistic Organic Chemistry BY GALchimia

Releaser in 2004

Learning the mechanistic basis of Organic Chemistry is like mastering chess. In this game, one needs to know how to move the pieces before embarking in a match. Similarly, a student in Organic Chemistry begins by learning a list of simple reactions. This allows at a later stage to explain the complex mechanisms that intervene in many organic reactions and consist in a chain of simple reactions operating in a sequential way.

This book is aimed at students who have completed a learning cycle of Organic Chemistry and need to settle their mechanistic knowledge. One of these students should be able to solve each problem in about half an hour. A bachelor of Organic Chemistry should be able to do it in about ten minutes, while a professional Organic Chemist should consume less than two minutes.

There is no way to scientifically prove that a certain mechanism is correct. A mechanism can only be proved wrong. Mechanisms admitted as correct are those that explain the experimental data and have been able to resist all attempts at proving their falsehood. On the other hand, only a few simple reactions have been studied in detail from the mechanistic point of view.

The reactions depicted in this book are complex, and none have been studied in detail. Consequently, the proposed solutions represent the opinion of author. Proposing a reasonable mechanism is more relevant than hitting the right one. Many exercises admit more than one sensible mechanism and the proposed solutions represent reasonable, but not unique, answers.

No enterprise would meet an end if the goal is the perfection. It is better to make soon a good job than never a perfect one. Many people wait for the perfect moment to have children in order to give them the best possible education. Often the resulting delay causes them to be biologically unable to be parents. Bearing in mind that having children is so satisfactory that it is worth even in a very imperfect way, I have written this book. I hope to be able to be proud of this intellectual offspring in spite of its deficiencies.