Organic chemistry is a traditionally difficult subject with high failure & withdrawal rates and many areas of conceptual difficulty for students. To promote student learning and success, four undergraduate organic chemistry and spectroscopy courses at the first to third year level (17-420 students) were "flipped" in 2013-2014. In the…

Outlines rules for a group electronegativity method. Also provides examples of this method and examples of other group electronegativities derived by both experimental and computational methods. (JN)

There are two conflicting views about the mechanism of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions to multibonds. To reconcile these viewpoints a concerted, spin-paired, diradical mechanism, based on valence bond theory, is proposed. Each of these three mechanisms is discussed. (JN)

Presents (for a broad chemistry relationship) information on solvation energies and their role in determining the course of reactions in solution. Also provides some simple "ground rules" for understanding and predicting solvation effects. (JN)

Isobutylene is an important bulk chemical for the petroleum industry. Dimerization and hydrogenation reactions produce the standard fuel octane rating comparison. This classic chemistry is often misrepresented in modern texts, however, and this paper attempts to correlate the physical organic principles that apply. (Author)

Discusses the valence-bond method, applying it to some coordination compounds of metals, especially those involving metal-metal bonds. Suggests that transition metals can form as many as nine covalent bonds, permitting valence-theory to be extended to transition metal compounds in a more effective way than has been possible before. (JN)

Substances that deliver chemical messages between same/different species are called semiochemicals. Surveyed are three types of semiochemicals (pheromones, allomones, and kairomones), types of organisms involved, and specific chemicals used to carry the various kinds of messages. (JN)

Discusses structures and characteristics of sulfur compounds which cause the odor of garlic and the crying which may result from an onion. These compounds are dependent on conditions of extraction and account for medical properties long ascribed to garlic and onions. (DH)

Chemical reaction rates can be controlled by varying composition of miniscule clusters of metal atoms. These bimetallic catalysts have had major impact on petroleum refining, where work has involved heterogeneous catalysis (reacting molecules in a phase separate from catalyst.) Experimentation involving hydrocarbon reactions, catalytic…

Reports the outcome of a plagiarism suit against organic chemistry professor T. W. Graham Solomons by two emeritus professors at New York University. The ruling of not guilty leaves the way open for Solomons' counterclaim that he lost sales of the book because of the suit. (Author/SA)