One of the greatest challenges in a student's ability to successfully complete reactions in organic chemistry is the ability to differentiate between reactions that have similar structures and proceed through similar reaction mechanisms. Featured in this article is an interleaved reaction review activity called a reaction web. Students are divided…

This paper describes a data set of IR, MS, H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, DEPT, and 2D NMR spectra designed for undergraduate teaching. The data files are provided as MestReNova documents containing all the available spectra for each of the 251 different compounds in the data set. The spectral data in these files can be processed, manipulated, copied, and…

The aim of this study was to elucidate and describe students' thinking about organic chemistry reactions of small versus large drug-like molecules. Thirty-six students enrolled in a Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry course participated in individual, think-aloud interviews. The interview protocol included questions about five reactions with the…

Education in organic chemistry is highly reliant on molecular representations. Students abstract information from representations to make sense of submicroscopic interactions. This study investigates relationships between differing representations: bond-line structures, ball-and-stick, or electrostatic potential maps (EPMs), and predicting partial…

Though attitude has been linked to student performance in general chemistry, it is under-researched with relation to organic chemistry. The previous research that has been conducted on students' attitudes towards organic chemistry has primarily occurred via quantitative approaches, with a current lack of qualitative approaches used to give robust…

SSurfactants or surface-active agents are interesting groups of compounds with characteristic structures, allowing them to decrease the surface tension. A surfactant consists of a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail. Typically, surfactant molecules aggregate into micelles at the critical micelle concentration. In this work, the concept of…

An organic chemistry experiment designed for senior undergraduates focuses on bifunctional catalysis, a critical yet often omitted topic at the undergraduate level, but essential for advanced studies in chemistry. By utilization of a tertiary amine-thiourea catalyst in the asymmetric Michael addition reaction, the experiment showcases the…

Mindset is a construct of interest for challenging learning environments, as science courses often are, in that, it has implications for behavioral responses to academic challenges. Previous work examining mindset in science learning contexts has been primarily quantitative in nature, limiting the theoretical basis for mindset perspectives…

The addition of research-focused experiences to undergraduate chemistry laboratory courses has been shown to bolster student learning, enhance student retention in STEM, and improve student self-identity as scientists. In the area of synthetic organic chemistry, the preparation of libraries of compounds with novel optical and electronic properties…

Approximations can help to orient the student in an organic chemistry laboratory. There the student needs to develop the solvent systems for the reaction and isolation of organic reactants and products. The adage "like dissolves like" helps in this regard, but this approach is vague and entirely qualitative. More quantitative approaches…

The helium-plasma (HePI) ionization mass spectrometry method was used to track the formation of reaction products and consumption of reactants by continually monitoring the vapors in the reaction headspace in real time. Two examples of the application procedure are presented here: a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction and a 1,4-nucleophilic…

A renewed experimental procedure for the unknown carbonyl experiment has been developed using hydrazone synthesis, thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis, and melting point determination to differentiate between structurally similar ketones and aldehydes in undergraduate organic chemistry practical courses. Benzaldehyde, p-tolualdehyde,…

Essential oils serve as a valuable, inexpensive natural supply of useful organic compounds that possess various biological activities, including antimicrobial properties, and most oils emit pleasant and familiar odors. They are an excellent source of analytes for introductory organic laboratory experiments. We report an experiment in which…

The main topics of this dissertation are: 1) the development and discussion of a new molecular balance for measuring alkyl-alkyl interactions in a wide array of organic solvents, 2) the development of linear solvation energy relationships between solvent interaction parameters and solvent accessible surface area (SASA) in CH-arene interactions,…

Solving problems in organic chemistry often requires the consideration of reaction mechanisms. As such, much research has been devoted to the examination of how students consider mechanisms when solving various types of organic chemistry problems, such as predicting the products of a reaction or proposing a synthesis. This article provides a…