smaerd
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Mood: hmm...
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Daily or weekly synthesis problems?
So I recently helped a student out with some organic chemistry home-work and I've realized how rusty I've become. Not to toot my own horn but I used
to be very strong in organic chemistry when I took it and maybe half a year after. Now I'm okay but a bit slower and miss some of the tricks.
A year + has now came and passed and I've forgotten some reactions and mechanisms. Now I realize 'real' organic chemistry isn't text-book but I have a
lot of fun solving organic synthesis problems. Sort of like Soduku but far more therapeutic and creative(more than one answer).
I was wondering if anyone knows of any websites where there are daily or weekly organic synthesis problems or just organic questions/quizzes?
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Lambda-Eyde
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I seem to remember seeing synthesis challenges on the Chemistry subreddit. Not sure if they're still at it, and they were pretty hard (way out of my
league, at least). The 'Master Organic Chemistry' blog is a favorite of mine.
Edit: Also, you of all people should know that this belongs in Beginnings 
[Edited on 9-8-2013 by Lambda-Eyde]
This just in: 95,5 % of the world population lives outside the USA
Please drop by our IRC channel: #sciencemadness @ irc.efnet.org
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sonogashira
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I have found the following books by Stuart Warren to be very helpful: "Designing Organic Syntheses" and "Organic Synthesis: The Disconnection
Approach" (and the "Workbook").
He does not cover mechanistic problems, but problems of a more practical nature - so that one may solve common synthetic problems more readily (such
as how to increase the chain length of an aliphatic carboxylic acid by one carbon, as a simple example).
[Edited on 9-8-2013 by sonogashira]
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kristofvagyok
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I have daily/weekly organic synthesis problems, so if you would like to take part and brainstorming, than I have a few project to think about.
Also, with a friend I started a few month ago this thing: Plan Your Synthesis
I have a blog where I post my pictures from my work: http://labphoto.tumblr.com/
-Pictures from chemistry, check it out(:
"You can’t become a chemist and expect to live forever." |
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smaerd
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I already have the second book, "Organic Synthesis: The Disconnection Approach", that you mentioned sonogashira. I'll look into the first one.
Really cool kristofvagyok I'd like to help out on something like that. I really need synthetic puzzles to keep my brain functioning properly and its
not always easy to create my own.
It just took a day to get back into it and I was pretty much settled on everything again except nomenclature(never clicked with me anyways) and a few
regiochemistry rules.
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sonogashira
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There's a very good book called "Exercises in Synthetic Organic Chemistry" by Ghiron and Thomas...!
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DJF90
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I find that book a little too abstract in some cases, Sonogashira. Strategy and Control by Stuart Warren is an excellent book and one of my
favourites, but its a fairly advanced text and requires you to know a significant amount in advance. It doesnt really cover mechanisms but more
transition states and rationalising why one product might be formed over another. Disconnection approach was also good but make sure you get the more
recent edition as the structures are much clearer.
Another collection you might find interesting is "Classics In Organic Synthesis". There are several books, and they describe the retrosynthesis of a
natural product/target, the forward approach, and any problems/suprises they encountered along the way.
Its not always useful to have questions without answers. But if you've graduated from a school or university, past exam papers can be good because
they'll generally cover what you know and test your understanding of it. They'll be within your calibre, which is a difficult thing to work out from a
book (is it too easy/too hard?). I'm fortunate in that I got a friend to download all the past organic papers available from my institution (I forgot
to do it myself when I still had intranet access). Sonogashira, hit me up a U2U if you're interested!
[Edited on 10-8-2013 by DJF90]
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