Physical Organic Chemistry

3 units

The goal of physical organic chemistry is to understand the details of reaction mechanisms, and gain insight into structures and reactivity common to organic chemicals and of high-energy chemical intermediates. This course focuses on the structure of any intermediates, the extent of a reaction from the perspective of the transition state, and identifying the relative energies of reactants, products, intermediates, and transition states. Students will learn concepts needed to solve mechanistic organic problems encountered in research, covering common organic reaction mechanisms, experimental techniques, and theoretical approaches. After the course, students will be able to design experiments to probe mechanistic questions and propose reasonable mechanisms and intermediates to explain experimental observations.