Posts Tagged ‘final product’
Monday, May 20th, 2013

Sometimes the originators of seminal theories in chemistry write a personal and anecdotal account of their work. Niels Bohr[1] was one such
and four decades later Robert Woodward wrote “The conservation of orbital symmetry” (Chem. Soc. Special Publications (Aromaticity), 1967, 21, 217-249; it is not online and so no doi can be given). Much interesting chemistry is described there, but (like Bohr in his article), Woodward lists no citations at the end, merely giving attributions by name. Thus the following chemistry (p 236 of this article) is attributed to a Professor Fonken, and goes as follows (excluding the structure in red):
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References
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N. Bohr, "Der Bau der Atome und die physikalischen und chemischen Eigenschaften der Elemente", Zeitschrift f�r Physik, vol. 9, pp. 1-67, 1922. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01326955
Tags: electrocyclic, energy, final product, free energy, Gerhard Fonken, Historical, Niels Bohr, pericyclic, professor, Reaction Mechanism, Robert Woodward, Woodward
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Thursday, January 31st, 2013

It is always rewarding when one comes across a problem in chemistry that can be solved using a continuous stream of rules and logical inferences from them. The example below[1] is one I have been using as a tutor in organic chemistry for a few years now, and I share it here. It takes around 50 minutes to unravel with students.
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References
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K. Harano, M. Eto, K. Ono, K. Misaka, and T. Hisano, "Sequential pericyclic reactions of unsaturated xanthates. One-pot synthesis of hydrobenzo[c]thiophenes", Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions 1, pp. 299, 1993. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/p19930000299
Tags: final product, pericyclic, tutor, Tutorial material
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Monday, July 16th, 2012

Singleton and co-workers have produced some wonderful work showing how dynamic effects and not just transition states can control the outcome of reactions. Steve Bachrach’s blog contains many examples, including this recent one.
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Tags: dielectric, energy surface, final product, Molecular dynamics, potential energy surface, Reaction Mechanism, Singleton & co., Steve Bachrach, substitution products
Posted in Interesting chemistry | 3 Comments »
Monday, May 7th, 2012

The Baeyer-Villiger rearrangement was named after its discoverers, who in 1899
described the transformation of menthone into the corresponding lactone using Caro’s acid (peroxysulfuric acid). The mechanism is described in all text books of organic chemistry as involving an alkyl migration. Here I take a look at the scheme described by Alvarez-Idaboy, Reyes and Mora-Diez[1], and which may well not yet have made it to all the text books!
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References
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J.R. Alvarez-Idaboy, L. Reyes, and N. Mora-Diez, "The mechanism of the Baeyer–Villiger rearrangement: quantum chemistry and TST study supported by experimental kinetic data", Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, vol. 5, pp. 3682, 2007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b712608e
Tags: final product, free energy, Historical, stereoelectronic, Tutorial material, X5
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »