MChem Chemistry with International Study / Course details

Provide an introduction to organic chemistry and develop a solid understanding of mechanisms

• To predict the outcome of reactions at sp2 centres in terms of interaction of orbitals.
• To apply knowledge of structure and bonding to rationalise the mechanism of reactions at sp2 centres.
• To introduce organic reactivity in the context of CHEM10101.
• To provide a grounding in basic mechanistic organic chemistry, to include orbital description of reactions and basic stereoelectronics (continuity from “shape” in CHEM10101).
• To emphasise interdisciplinary aspects (to run synchronously with kinetics in CHEM10212).
• To predict the outcome of reactions at sp2 centres in terms of interaction of orbitals.
• To apply knowledge of structure and bonding to rationalise the mechanism of reactions at sp2 centres.
• To define the concept of aromaticity and use it to rationalise and predict reactivity of arenes.

Students will be expected to  use material covered in lectures or tutorials to independently search different text sources to support their understanding and thus encourage and reinforce investigative skills. The course contains in-lecture problems and the tutorials are problem-based ensuring students can illustrate core understanding but the problem-solving skills involved will also include challenging problems designed to develop and advance their analytical skills in bringing different concepts to bear on unseen problems. The tutorials in support of this course material also provide facility for student to develop communication skills through group discussions of problems and reporting on the own work in a group setting.

• Students will be expected to submit tutorial problem sheets that will be marked and discussed in three-weekly tutorials.
• Revision lectures and problem sessions will be held during and/or at the beginning of each teaching block.
• Three workshops will be held at the end of the teaching session.
• Online quizzes will be provided once a week.

J Clayden, N Greeves, S Warren, Organic Chemistry, 2nd edition, OUP, 2012