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CHEM 433 Advanced Organic Chemistry

This upper-division elective course is designed for chemistry majors and minors who have completed Organic Chemistry 1 and 2. Students will develop their abilities to construct multistep syntheses for complex molecules, including asymmetric catalysis, and refine their understanding of reaction mechanisms. Students will expand their knowledge of transformations on molecules with biological, pharmaceutical, and industrial significance. Students will read current primary literature for organic chemistry and gain understanding of research methodologies.

Corequisites

Prerequisites

Special information

First day attendance is mandatory.
Corequisites: This lecture is designed to be taken concurrently with CHEM 435, Advanced Organic Chemistry Lab.
3 Undergraduate credits

Effective May 5, 2015 to present

Learning outcomes

General

  • Understand the contributions of sterics and electronics to the physical properties and chemical reactivites of a molecule.
  • Understand how molecular orbital theory assists the chemical bonding model for organic compounds.
  • Be able to write reasonable reaction mechanisms substitution, elimination, enolate, radical, and pericyclic reactions.
  • Understand principles of retrosynthesis and be able to formulate multistep syntheses of complex molecules.
  • Understand the importance of absolute and relative molecular stereochemistry in a molecule's function and formulate synthetic strategies to ensure the desired stereochemistry is produced, including methods of asymmetric catalysis.
  • Understand protecting group strategies in multistep synthesis.
  • Identify reaction optimization strategies.
  • Be familiar with the modern techniques of molecular analysis, including 2-D NMR experiments.
  • Identify peer-reviewed journals for organic chemistry research; be able to read, comprehend, and summarize articles of primary literature for organic chemistry.