CHEM 344
Physical Organic Chemistry Spring 2025
Division III

The structure of a molecule is inherently linked to its reactivity, and these correlations form the basis for understanding organic reaction mechanisms. This course advances the understanding from previous organic courses through a detailed examination of the concepts that underlie these structure/reactivity relationships, including molecular strain and stability, acid/base chemistry, steric and electronic effects, and aromaticity. These concepts will also be explored in the context of specific classes of reaction mechanisms. Classical and modern experimental and theoretical tools used to elucidate reaction mechanisms will also be presented, including reaction kinetics, isotope effects, and linear free energy relationships. By studying the primary literature, we will see how these experiments have been applied to the elucidation of reaction mechanism, while also learning to design a set of experiments for study of mechanisms of contemporary interest.