2024-2025 Catalog 
    
    May 13, 2024  
2024-2025 Catalog
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CHEM 250 - Survey of Organic Chemistry

5 Credit: (3 lecture, 3 lab, 0 clinical) 6 Contact Hours: [CHEM 105  or CHEM 220 ] 


This survey course covers the field of organic chemistry. Concurrent laboratory includes methods of separation, analysis, synthesis, and purification of organic compounds. It fulfills the entrance requirement to some schools, such as nursing (BSN), physical therapy, physician assistant and others.
Semesters Offered: summer semesters

Course Goals/ Objectives/ Competencies:
Goal 1:  Explain basic principles of introductory chemistry.

  1. Use electron configuration and orbital diagrams.
  2. Predict the hybridization of a carbon atom in different structures.
  3. Differentiate between polar and non-polar substances.
  4. Calculate formal charge.
  5. Draw Kekule and condensed structures for various organic compounds.
  6. Understand the relationship between pKa and pH.
  7. Describe how pH affects the structure of an organic compound.
  8. Distinguish between Lewis acids and Lewis bases.

Goal 2:  Employ nomenclature rules, physical properties, and structural representation of organic compounds.

  1. Describe the physical characteristics of alkanes in terms of melting points, boiling points, and densities.
  2. Memorize the various alkyl substituents covered in class.
  3. Name simple alkanes.
  4. Write formulas for simple alkanes.
  5. Differentiate various functional groups, including alkyl halides, alcohols, amines, and ethers.
  6. Draw various conformations of alkane/cycloalkanes based on a condensed formula.

Goal 3:  Apply nomenclature and structure to an understanding of the stability and reactivity of alkenes and alkynes.

  1. Describe the bonding in alkenes.
  2. Name alkenes from the formula or vice versa.
  3. Name various geometrical isomers using cis/trans and e/z systems.
  4. Determine the relative stability of alkenes.
  5. Understand the basics of how mechanisms are used in organic chemistry.
  6. Predict the products of alkene and alkyne reactions.
  7. Understand carbocation rearrangement through hydride or methyl shifts.
  8. Devise an approach to multistep synthesis.

Goal 4:  Describe the various types of isomers.

  1. Recognize the difference between cis and trans isomers.
  2. Determine the asymmetric center of chiral molecules.
  3. Differentiate between meso compounds and chiral compounds.
  4. Draw enantiomers using the R, S system.
  5. Name enantiomers using the R, S system.

Goal 5:  Apply resonance to describe aromaticity.

  1. Draw resonance contributors and resonance hybrids.
  2. Predict acidic or basic properties from resonance effects.
  3. Predict aromaticity for various compounds.
  4. Name various monosubstituted benzenes.
  5. Draw various monosubstituted benzenes.
  6. Recite the general mechanism for electrophilic aromatic substitutions (EAS).
  7. Predict the products for EAS reactions (halogenation, nitration, sulfonation, Friedel-Crafts Acylation/Alkylation).
  8. Name disubstituted benzenes.
  9. Recognize disubstituted benzenes.
  10. Recognize the effect of ortho, para directors, versus meta directors.
  11. Recognize the effect of activation/deactivation substituents on reactions of substituted benzenes.

Goal 6:  Differentiate between substitution and elimination reactions of alkyl halides.

  1. Describe kinetics, possible rearrangements, nucleophilic attack, reactivity order, leaving groups, and solvent effects for Sn1, Sn2, E1, and E2 reactions.
  2. Describe the mechanisms for Sn1, Sn2, E1, and E2 reactions.
  3. Determine if a particular reaction will undergo substitution, elimination, or both.

Goal 7:  Describe the reactions of alcohols, amines, ethers, and epoxides.

  1. Name structures for various alcohols and ethers.
  2. Draw structures for various alcohols and ethers.
  3. Predict the products of elimination, substitution, and oxidation reactions for alcohols.
  4. Predict the products of nucleophilic substitution reactions of ethers and epoxides.
  5. Explain why amines do not undergo substitution or elimination reactions.

Goal 8:  Apply the properties of carbonyl compounds.

  1. Name structures for carboxylic acids and their derivatives.
  2. Draw structures for carboxylic acids and their derivatives.
  3. Differentiate between class I and class II carbonyl compounds.
  4. Recite the general mechanism for nucleophilic acyl substitution and determine relative reactivities.
  5. Apply the general mechanism to acyl halides, esters, carboxylic acids, and amides.
  6. Explain the use of Grignard Reagents.

Goal 9:  Explain the various methods in which the structures of organic compounds can be determined experimentally.

  1. Describe Mass Spectrometry (MS).
  2. Identify compounds based on fragmentation patterns using MS.
  3. Describe Infrared Spectroscopy (IR)
  4. Recognize the common IR frequencies of various organic functional groups.
  5. Describe Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) Spectroscopy.
  6. Identify compounds based chemical shifts and signal splitting using 1H NMR.
  7. Utilize MS, IR, and 1HNMR collectively to identify organic compounds.

Goal 10:  Use laboratory equipment in synthesis, purification, and analysis in organic chemistry. 

  1. Demonstrate proper use of the melting point apparatus, thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatograph, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR), and a large variety of organic glassware.
  2. Practice safe laboratory practices when working with organic chemicals.



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