Magelia - 12-1-2013 at 12:04
Hi guys,
I have a philosophy about organic chemistry and I was wondering what you guys think about it. I always thought that to truly understand organic
chemistry at a very high level, one also needs to have a a great understanding of physical chemistry. Sure, it is great that in organic chemistry you
can know all your name reactions and a bunch of reaction mechanisms, but to truly understand what is going on at the microscopic level you must
understand physical chemistry.
I believe that understanding what is happening at the microscopic level (molecular orbitals, energy levels) will allow you to to understand what is
going on at the macroscopic level which is usually what we see in organic chemistry (ie: creating macromolecules). Sometimes when creating these
macromolecules we run into problems with something "simple" not working and we don't understand why.
By tying in physical chemistry with organic chemistry one truly understands what is happening in the reactions an organic chemist is doing. I know
Roald Hoffman made of computers/physical chemistry to solve long time organic chemistry problems.
I was wondering if anyone shared my thoughts or if anyone has ever written about this matter before?
smaerd - 12-1-2013 at 12:16
Well most graduate organic chemistry programs require a physical organic chemistry text and a course. At least that's what I've understood. Organic
chemistry does have a 'zen' approach too it, in knowing the structure of molecules, basic ways things react and the nature of reactions themselves a
fair amount can be intuited. Then again when push comes to shove and a synthesis is not working out or a new catalyst is needed it seems like knowing
physical organic chemistry would be important. Physical organic chemistry explains a whole lot of "whys", but is calculating wave-forms of complex
organic molecules practical for synthesizing a new compound, not really. At least it doesn't seem to be from where I'm standing.
On reading the little I have in "Advanced Organic Chemistry Part A: Structure and Mechanisms" there isn't a whole lot of quantum mechanics going on
but there is a lot of explaining relationships and revealing a lot of the nature of organic chemistry. Then again I'm an undergrad and don't know too
much yet.
kavu - 12-1-2013 at 12:28
I've read the book Modern Physical Organic Chemistry by Eric V. Anslyn and Dennis A. Dougherty and had a course based on it. I found it most useful
for method development and synthesis planning. Insight to reaction mechanisms (which are not purely nonsense, but can be used to model reactions) can
help improve selectivity, yield and isolations. At the moment I'm working on a total synthesis project which has gained much from mechanistic studies
of similar reactions. Question of "why" is always problematic in science (as explained by R. Feynman), I think the power of physical organic chemistry
comes with enhanced and more than often mathematical models of reactions and structural features.
wireshark - 2-2-2013 at 20:05
Phys org opens up the hood. Synthetic planning is done just with pattern-matching and -recognition. There's no physics in that. The MO/DFT/ab
initio calculations will help you explain reactivity/selectivity and occasionally use the explanations to make improvements. I've read a little
bit of Part A, and my disreputable conclusion is that phys org should be learned after synthesis. I can't imagine being interested in it
otherwise.