Advanced Organic Chemistry (saylor.org)

Remember that organic chemistry is the discipline that studies the properties and reactions of organic, carbon-based compounds. This course is intended to be taken after the first two semesters of organic chemistry. Many of the topics within this outline have been covered in the first two semesters of organic chemistry; however, this course will explore these topics in much greater depth. It is important to make sure that you have a good grasp of the concepts from earlier organic chemistry courses before moving on to this course.

We begin by studying a unit on ylides, benzyne, and free radicals. Many free radicals affect life processes. For example, oxygen-derived radicals may be overproduced in cells, such as white blood cells that try to defend against infection in a living organism. In the first unit, you will learn about free radicals, including oxygen-containing compounds. Afterward we move into a comprehensive examination of stereochemistry, as well as the kinetics of substitution and elimination reactions. After learning the information in that unit, you will be able to describe reaction mechanisms. The course wraps up with a final unit, which is a survey of various hetereocyclic structures, including their MO theory, aromaticity, and reactivity.

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

Describe free radicals in terms of stability, kinetics, and bond dissociation energies.
Describe the stereochemistry and orbitals involved in photochemical reactions.
Describe enantiomers, diastereomers, pro-S and pro-R hydrogens, and Re/Si faces of carbonyls.
Perform conformational analysis of alkanes and cyclohexanes.
Describe reaction mechanisms in terms of variousparameters (i.e.,kinetics, Curtin-Hammet principle, Hammond postulate,etc.).
Describe the chemistry of the heterocycles listed in Unit 3in terms of molecular orbital theory, aromaticity, and reactions.