Organic Chemistry: Structural Aspects

3 ECTS credits
90 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1017600BNR for all students in the 1st semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

Students bachelor Bio-engineering Sciences, bachelor Chemistry and bachelor Physics and Astronomy must have followed 'Chemistry: Structure of Matter and Chemical Reactions I' and 'Chemistry: Structure of Matter and Chemical Reactions II', before they can enroll for 'Organic Chemistry: Structural Aspects'. Students bachelor Biology must have followed 'General Chemistry', before they can enroll for 'Organic Chemistry: Structural Aspects'.

Taught in

English

Faculty

Faculty of Science and Bio-engineering Sciences

Department

Bio-Engineering Sciences

Educational team

Ulrich Hennecke (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

26 contact hours Lecture
13 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals

Course Content

Various structural aspects of organic compounds are discussed during the lectures (HOC), including:

1) Organic structures, types of compounds and bonds, functional groups, nomenclature
2) Structures of organic compounds: atomic orbitals, molecular orbitals (homo- and heteronuclear), HOMO/LUMO Schemes, hybridisation, aromaticity
3) Delocalisation of electrons (mesomeric forms), compounds with one or more double bonds, conjugation (colour), allylic systems, cationic and anionic PI-systems
4) Acidity, basicity, pKa (relation structural features and pKa), applications to nitrogen bases, oxygen bases, carbon acids and bases.
5) Stereochemistry: enantiomerism (R/S), optical activity, diastereomerism, terminology (E, Z, cis, trans), stereotopic centers, etc.
6) Conformational analysis (free rotation, conformations and configurations, rotational barriers of ethane, propane, butane, etc., ring strain, rings with sp2 -C-atoms, rings with axial and equatorial substituents). Energy and rate of conformational changes (applications of Bolzmann and Eyring formulae).

During the practical sessions (WPO), theoretical exercises are given.

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Organische Chemie: Structuur, Guido Verniest, VUB
Handbook (Recommended) : Organic Chemistry, Clayden, Greeves, Warren & Wothers, 2de, Oxford University Press, 9780199270293, 2012

Additional info

Copies of powerpoint slides are on-line available on the learning platform.

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

After completion of this course, the student has:

*insight in the composition of organic compounds, including orbital composition and electron delocalization,

*advanced knowledge and insight in the structure of organic compounds, more specifically regarding mesomeric forms, conformations and configurations of simple organic compounds.

*knowledge of the most important functional groups in organic chemistry and can give the correct nomenclature.

The student can draw organic structures correctly and can analyze and predict or estimate some major physical and chemical properties (acidity, chirality, boiling point, etc.).

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

written exam with a relative weight of 75 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Written exam (3h). Correct representations of molecules and schematic drawings of orbitals, acidity (pKa), configurational/conformational analysis and properties of functional groups will always be examined.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context