Arthur Winter, PhD, is the author of the popular Organic Chemistry Help! website chemhelper.com and Organic Chemistry I For Dummies. His professional focus is on the chemistry of magneto-organic materials.
Need help with organic chemistry? Get extra practice with this workbook If you’re looking for a little extra help with organic chemistry than your Organic Chemistry I class offers, Organic Chemistry I Workbook For Dummies is exactly what you need! It lets you take the theories you’re learning (and maybe struggling with) in class and practice them in the same format you’ll find on class exams and other licensing exams, like the MCAT.
Organic Chemistry I For Dummies, 2nd Edition (9781119293378) was previously published as Organic Chemistry I For Dummies, 2nd Edition (9781118828076). While this version features a new Dummies cover and design, the content is the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.The easy way to take the confusion out of organic chemistryOrganic chemistry has a long-standing reputation as a difficult course.
Get a firm grasp on organic chemistry. Successfully studying organic chemistry means getting to know the elements of the periodic table and the important facts that highlight the fundamentals of organic chemistry. This Cheat Sheet shows it all.The basics of organic chemistryWhen you explore biology, you’ll find that many processes are constantly occurring in living organisms.
You won't get very far in your study of organic chemistry without the periodic table of elements and an understanding of the common functional groups (or reactive centers) that dictate how most of a compound's chemical reactions occur.Common functional groups in organic chemistryIn organic chemistry, functional groups (or reactive centers) are small structural units within molecules that dictate how most of the compound’s chemical reactions occur.
When elements combine through chemical reactions, they form compounds. When compounds contain carbon, they’re called organic compounds. The four families of organic compounds with important biological functions areCarbohydratesThese molecules consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in a ratio of roughly 1:2:1.
Studying the elements of the periodic table is vital for understanding organic chemistry. So that you don't have to memorize each element, they're grouped together by their properties.
IR (infrared) spectroscopy is useful in organic chemistry because it enables you to identify different functional groups. This is because each functional group contains certain bonds, and these bonds always show up in the same places in the IR spectrum.
Functional groups are the portions in an organic molecule that dictate how the molecule will react.
Organic chemistry has a reputation for being a challenging course. But here’s the thing that’s often not mentioned: Organic chemistry is a subject that anyone can ace. Doing well, though, requires working not only hard but also efficiently. Here are ten practical tips on how to study as efficiently as possible so you can do well in the class.
If you know how to name alkanes, adding alkene nomenclature to your repertoire is a fairly straightforward task.Whereas the names of alkanes end with the suffix –ane, alkenes end with the suffix –ene. A two-carbon alkene, therefore, is named ethene; a three-carbon alkene is named propene, and an alkene in a five-membered ring is named cyclopentene, as shown here.
A first-order (or SN1) substitution reaction occurs when one group on an organic molecule leaves and is later substituted by another group. This reaction goes through a carbocation intermediate. The SN1 mechanism is analogous to breaking up with your current significant other, staying single for a while, and only after you've been single, becoming attached to a new romantic partner.