Library Assignment

Please visit the UF, UNF or JU library and find an article on the synthesis of an organic molecule. You can recognize these articles because they usually start with the 'the total synthesis of …' or 'A novel approach to….' in the title. I recommend looking in one of the following journals. 

  1. The Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) This contains some articles which are not organic at all! 
  2. The Journal of Organic Chemistry (JOC)
  3. Tetrahedron Letters
  4. Chemical Reviews
  5. Accounts of Chemical Research
  6. Tetrahedron.

Traditionally, organic chemistry research falls into three categories

  1. physical- where the researcher is trying to figure out why things occur. Do not pick such an article.
  2. Reaction - where the researcher is studying just one reaction. You can recognize such an article because the person keeps using the same reagents over and over again (usually on different starting materials. try to avoid such an article as well.
  3. Synthetic. In this kind of article, the researcher is trying to make a molecule usually of some biological interest. You can recognize such an article because it usually contains a scheme which shows how the person has synthesized the molecule from simpler starting materials. Try to find one of these articles.
Please submit your report on paper or as a MS word attachment to an email sent to smilczan@fccj.org.

Questions you must answer:

  1. Photocopy the article but do not include any laboratory sections.
  2. What is the molecule that the person is trying to make? Draw the structure and put stars (*) next to any chiral centers.
  3. What is the format of the article? (Example: Title, abstract, purpose…..)
  4. Is there some utility (usefulness) of the molecule for humanity or biology?
  5. What is the format of the references?
For example: Wender, P.; Singh, S. Tetrahedron Lett. 1985, 26, 5987. would imply that the format is 

Author1, L.; Author2, L. Journal Title YEAR, Volume, page.

  1. Find one reaction, in the article, that you understand and draw a mechanism for it. Can you provide a reference from your text (page ----- of Brown)?
  2. Find another reaction, in the article, that you understand and draw a mechanism for it. Can you provide a reference from your text (page ----- of Brown)?
  3. Please describe one thing that you do not understand from this article
  4. Does the author mention any % yields? (For one step, many steps or the whole synthesis?) Tell me the % yield and over which step (s).
  5. Where is the author(s) from?