Aim
The aim of the course is to give advanced knowledge in synthetic organic chemistry and knowledge in physical organic chemistry.

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

• be able to identify and name important organic reactions

• be able to in detail explain the outcome of organic reactions

Skills and abilities
For a passing grade the student must

• be able to plan and evaluate multi-step organic reaction sequences using elementary retrosynthetic analysis

• be able to describe organic chemical reactions in terms of frontier orbital analysis

• be able to discuss orally and in writing organic reactions with regard to mechanisms and selectivity

• be able to suggest alternative reagents and reactions for performing desired organic transformations

• be able to suggest methods to investigate mechanisms of reactions

Contents
The course deals primary with organic chemical reactions for the creation of C-C bonds emphasising enolate chemistry but also using pericyclic reactions and radical chemistry. The course also gives advanced knowledge in oxidation and reduction reactions in organic chemistry. The emphasis is on the different chemo-, regio- and diastereoselectivity of the different reaction types. Fundamental retrosynthetic analysis of target molecules is used as means to design multistep synthesis. The course is focused on applying a mechanistic approach to understand the outcome of chemical reactions and to emphasise this, the reactions are analyzed using basic frontier orbital analysis. A large part of the course treats methods to elucidate mechanisms of reactions such as linear free energy relationships and the primary isotope effect.

An important aspect of the course is to orally present organic reactions to other students. The role of organic chemistry and in material science will be presented.

Literature
Clayden, J, Greeves, N, Warren, S, Wothers, P: Organic Chemistry. Oxford University Press 2001. ISBN 0-19-850346-6.