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Carbocation stability & Hyperconjugation
The slides I showed in lecture today are available here.I have three short comments to go with these:… Continue reading
Posted in Post-lecture
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Free energy, heat, and potential
I thought I was setting the record straight on energy yesterday, but upon reflection, I made an egregious mistake. Well, I probably made several, but there's only one that I'm currently aware of.In drawing a distinction between free energy (G)… Continue reading
Posted in Post-lecture
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%s character & bond energy (textbook error)
On p. 146 Loudon asks "why an sp2-sp3 C-C bond is stronger than an sp3-sp3 C-C bond". It's a good question because it might help explain why more substituted alkenes are more stable than their less substituted isomers, a topic… Continue reading
Posted in Post-lecture
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Unsaturation Number (textbook error)
Chapter 4 introduces so-called “road map” problems. Problem 4.51 & 4.52 are typical examples. A “road map” problem gives you some information about the composition of a molecule and its chemical behavior (what you can turn it into, how you… Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Feedback about lab notebooks
Now that I'm finished reading lab notebooks, I want to share a couple of general observations. The first and most important one is this: the lab notebooks were generally good. Most of them were prepared well, used effectively in lab,… Continue reading
Posted in Labs
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Lecture slides – Fri Sept 18 (more MO + pKa)
Slides for today's lecture are located here. The table of common acidic functional groups and related properties are located here (note: you need to memorize the information in this table for next Friday's exam + future exams). The table will… Continue reading
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How Do Molecules Adjust to Steric Repulsion?
The standard way to think about steric repulsion is very simple. An atom requires space for its electrons. If another atom intrudes on that space, both atoms are unhappy and the energy rises. Steric repulsion.Unfortunately, concept doesn't quite match reality… Continue reading
Posted in Homework
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van der Waals attraction or repulsion?
Loudon mentions two van der Waals forces in Chapter 2, an attractive force and a repulsive force. This is confusing because, other than the fact that both forces have something to do with electrons, they are not related.The attractive van… Continue reading
Posted in Post-lecture
Tagged Pauli repulsion, steric hindrance, steric repulsion, van der Waals forces
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Internal Rotation & Hybrid Orbitals
Today's lecture on conformational isomers and internal rotation omitted a rather slick use of hybrid orbitals. Pictured above are two views of CH3 (methyl) with its singly occupied sp3 hybrid orbital on C (side view on left, orbital axis… Continue reading
Posted in Post-lecture
Tagged conformer, hybrid orbital, internal rotation
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HW #1 comments
I have read all of the assignments that were turned in and I will be returning them in class on Monday. In addition to the comments that my graders and I have put on your assignments, there are two additional… Continue reading
Posted in Homework
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