Reducing Sugars
What’s a reducing sugar, and why is it important? Here’s a quick summary. Full details in the post below. Before We Talk About Reducing Sugars:
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Grignard Reactions And Synthesis (2)
Here’s the summary for today’s post on synthesis incorporating Grignard reagents and oxidants. Converting an aldehyde into a tertiary alcohol can be performed if we
Read moreAlcohol Oxidation: “Strong” and “Weak” Oxidants
Here’s what we’ll talk about today: reagents for the oxidation of alcohols. It’s helpful to break oxidants for alcohols into two categories: “weak” and “strong”.
Read moreDemystifying Alcohol Oxidations
Today’s post in a nutshell: many oxidations of alcohols might seem a little mysterious, but essentially proceed through a glorified E2 mechanism. Many oxidants work
Read moreCalculating the oxidation state of a carbon
Try applying the rules for calculating oxidation states to carbon.
It’s going to feel a little bit weird. Why? Because there are two key differences.
First, carbon is often more electronegative (2.5) than some of the atoms it’s bound to (such as H, 2.2). So what do you do in this case?
Secondly, unlike metal-metal bonds, carbon-carbon bonds are ubiquitous. So how do you deal with them?
Oxidation and Reduction in Organic Chemistry
Iron smelting! Photo credit: http://sclowcountryoutdoors.blogspot.com/2011/02/iron-smelting-at-acba.html In the beginning, the term actually made sense. When the alchemists and medieval metallurgists started doing experiments to quantify exactly how
Read moreHydroboration of Alkenes: The Mechanism
In the last post we saw that the results of hydroboration of alkenes are not in accord with any of the two families of mechanisms
Read moreAlkene Reactions: Ozonolysis
Today’s post represents not so much a pattern in alkene reactions, so much as it does a very common reaction that bears mentioning along with the
Read moreReagent Friday: Sodium Periodate
In a blatant plug for the Reagent Guide and the Reagents App for iPhone, each Friday I profile a different reagent that is commonly encountered in Org 1/ Org
Read moreReagent Friday: Ozone (O3)
In a blatant plug for the Reagent Guide and the Reagents App for iPhone, each Friday I profile a different reagent that is commonly encountered in Org 1/
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