Organic Chemistry I For Dummies

Arthur Winter is a graduate of Frostburg State University (located in the mountains of western Maryland), where he received his BS in chemistry. Currently, he is a fourth-year doctoral student in organic chemistry at the University of Maryland in College Park, where his research involves studying extremely short-lived reactive intermediates (<0.000001 second lifetimes) using laser spectroscopy. He likes helping students with their struggles with organic chemistry and is the creator of www.chemhelper.com, an organic chemistry help Web site.

Introduction. Part I: Going Organic: The Chemistry of Carbon. Chapter 1: The Wonderful World of Organic Chemistry. Chapter 2: Dissecting Atoms: Atomic Structure and Bonding. Chapter 3: Speaking with Pictures: Drawing Structures. Chapter 4: Covering the Bases (And the Acids). Chapter 5: Reactivity Centers: Functional Groups. Chapter 6: Seeing in 3-D: Stereochemistry.3 Part II: Hydrocarbons. Chapter 7: The Bones of Organic Molecules: The Alkanes. Chapter 8: Seeing Double: The Alkenes. Chapter 9: It Takes Alkynes: The Carbon-Carbon Triple Bond. Part III: Functional Groups. Chapter 10: Replacing and Removing: Substitution and Elimination Reactions. Chapter 11: Getting Drunk on Organic Molecules: The Alcohols. Chapter 12: Side-By-Side: Conjugated Alkenes and the Diels-Alder Reaction. Chapter 13: Lord of the Rings: Aromatic Compounds. Part IV: Spectroscopy and Structure Determination. Chapter 14: A Smashing Time: Mass Spectrometry. Chapter 15: Seeing Good Vibrations: IR Spectroscopy. Chapter 16: NMR Spectroscopy: Hold on to Your Hats, You're Going Nuclear! Chapter 17: Following the Clues: Solving Problems in NMR. Part V: The Part of Tens. Chapter 18: Ten Keys for Surviving Orgo. Chapter 19: Ten Cool Organic Discoveries. Chapter 20: Ten Great Organic Chemists. Part VI: Appendixes. Appendix A: Working Multistep Synthesis Problems. Appendix B: Working Reaction Mechanisms. Appendix C: Glossary. Index.