Reference

Organic Chemistry: A Tenth Edition

Organic Chemistry: A Tenth Edition: Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/organic-chemistry/pages/1-why-this-chapter

• pKa values (McMurry)The book's measured values: common acids in Table 2.3, the full list in Appendix B. Smaller pKa means stronger acid; each unit is a factor of ten.

• Functional groupsThe families later chapters are organised around, and the ending each takes in a name.

• NamingAlkyl group names, and the order of priority that decides which group gives the suffix.

• Conformations and strainWhat each eclipsing or gauche interaction costs, how strongly a group prefers equatorial, and which cis/trans pattern puts groups axial.

• IR absorptionsWhere each functional group absorbs, and how strongly.

• NMR shifts and splittingWhere ¹H and ¹³C signals fall, and the splitting neighbouring protons cause.

• Substituent effects on benzeneWhich groups activate or deactivate the ring, and where they send the next substituent.

• The 20 amino acidsStructures, three- and one-letter codes, and pKa values.

• Pericyclic rulesWhether a thermal or photochemical reaction runs conrotatory or disrotatory, suprafacial or antarafacial.

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• Substitution vs eliminationRead the substrate, then read the reagent. Between them they decide which of the four mechanisms wins.

• The four arrow-pushing stepsEvery ionic mechanism you will meet this semester is these four steps in some order. If a step you have drawn is not one of them, it is wrong.

• When electrons can moveResonance structures come from a handful of arrangements. Learn to spot these and you stop guessing.

• Stereochemistry wordsThe vocabulary that addition questions are graded on, and that is easy to swap by accident.

• Degrees of unsaturationHow many rings and π bonds a molecular formula allows, before you draw a single structure.

• Ranking substituents (R/S and E/Z)The sequence rules behind every R/S and E/Z assignment.