Organic chemistry
Reaction mechanisms, functional-group transformations, NMR and IR interpretation, stereochemistry, and yield accounting for synthesis routes.
7 guides 1 calculator 1 cheat sheet
Reading path
Start here. Each guide is a self-contained tutorial with worked examples and cited sources.
- SN1 vs SN2 in five decisions Substrate, nucleophile, leaving group, solvent, temperature — a five-way decision tree that predicts which mechanism wins.
- E1 vs E2 vs substitution: the full decision map Four mechanisms compete on the same substrate. Sort reagents on two axes, substrates on one, and the answer falls out.
- Electrophilic addition: Markovnikov and the rearrangements Alkenes are electron-rich; electrophiles love them. Markovnikov, anti-Markovnikov exceptions, and cation rearrangements that flip the product.
- Reading an NMR spectrum: shift, integration, splitting The proton NMR spectrum is a compressed structure drawing. Three independent axes identify a molecule from scratch.
- Aromaticity: Hückel's rule and benzene reactivity Six π electrons, one flat ring, one enormous energy discount. The four criteria for aromaticity and how they control reactivity.
- Carbonyl chemistry: additions and eliminations Half of organic chemistry is one polarised π bond. Aldehyde and ketone additions, acyl-derivative substitutions, and the reactivity ladder.
- The Diels-Alder reaction: reading a cycloaddition Diene plus dienophile equals cyclohexene in one concerted step. FMO theory, endo rule, and the stereo constraints that make it a synthesis workhorse.
Calculators
- Degrees of Unsaturation Calculator
Index of hydrogen deficiency from a molecular formula or atom counts. Halogen and N rules built in.
Cheat sheets
- Organic Functional Groups — Structures, Names, IUPAC
Organic functional groups cheat sheet: 24 groups with structures, IUPAC suffixes and prefixes, canonical examples, and the naming priority order.