Benzene and aromaticity; Hückel's MO Theory. Aromatic substitution. Synthesis and reactivity of aromatic compounds. Aromatic heterocycles. Formation of C-C bonds catalyzed by transition metals. Enolates and enamines. Aldol, Claisen and Diekmann reactions. Acetoacetic and malonic syntheses. Michael and Robinson reactions. Lipids. Amino acids. Peptides. Carbohydrates. Nucleic acids.
Laboratory: Separation and characterization of two unknown aromatic compounds. Mass spectrometry and NMR.
Lessons mainly (but not exclusively) follow the topics covered in "Organic Chemistry" W.H. Brown, B.L. Iverson, E.V. Anslyn, C.S. Foote (V ed). Generally speaking, all the topics covered in the course are present in all the texts of Organic Chemistry for the Degree courses in Chemistry. The same text covers both the courses of Organic Chemistry I and II. It is advisable to refer to the handouts to get the track of the topics that must be studied in a suitable textbook.
Learning Objectives
The course is complementary to the course of Organic Chemistry I and aims to furnish the student with the complete picture of structure and reactivity of organic compounds, including several classes of natural products like lipids, amino acids, carbohydrates and nucleic acids.
Basic knowledge of mass spectrometry (EI) is also provided. The practical experience concerns the separation and structural characterization of two unknown compounds.
Prerequisites
Required courses: Organic Chemistry I and Laboratory of Organic Chemistry I
This course is the continuation of the O.C. I course and Lab. of C.O. I and all the contents are closely related.
Teaching Methods
Total number of hours for Lectures (hours): 40
Total number of hours for Laboratory-field practice : 15
Further information
lesson slides are available on the Moodle platform.
Compulsory attendance of the introductory lessons to the laboratory activity (first part of the course)
Type of Assessment
Students have to write a report at the end of the laboratory experience that is a prerequisite to the oral exam.
The final examination consists of a written test (6 short questions / exercises, 2 for each part of the program, to be performed in 1h immediately before the oral examination) and an oral test with exercises and questions to check:
- knowledge of the structure, properties and reactivity of benzene derivatives and aromatic heterocyclic compounds.
- knowledge of the structure, properties and reactivity of enols and their analogs.
- knowledge of the structure, properties and reactivity of sugars, amino acids, peptides and proteins, lipids and nucleic acids.
- knowledge of the mechanisms of the reactions analyzed during the lessons.
- the ability to design retrosynthetic analysis of the compounds analyzed during the lessons and analogous compounds.
- the ability to apply synthetic processes to short multistage synthesis
Course program
Benzene and aromaticity; Hückel's Molecular Orbital theory; electrophilic substitution and nucleophilic aromatic substitution; synthesis and reactivity of aromatic compounds: halogen-derivatives, aldehydes, phenols, aromatic amines. Aromatic heterocycles: structure and reactivity. Formation of C-C bonds catalyzed by transition metals. Enolates and enamines. Aldol reaction and aldol condensation. Reactions of Claisen and Diekmann. Acetoacetic synthesis. Malonic synthesis. Michael addition reaction. Robinson reaction. Lipids. Amino acids. Peptides and peptide bond. Carbohydrates. Nucleic acids.
Laboratory: Separation and characterization of two unknown aromatic compounds. Mass spectrometry (EI) and 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopy of aromatic compounds.