Today's O Chem class was absolutely perfect. I mean, perfect to the T. There were so many ironies, and I'm going to try and list them all.
First, Dr. Farrell (the teacher) began by talking about Free Radical Substitution. This involves a halogen radical "attacking" a carbon compound, and then the carbon radical attacking a halogen compound. He said, "They keep attacking each other, over and over again, like the Hatfields and McCoys." Wow.
Then came the second type of reaction. A nucleophilic substitution. This involves a nucleophile (an Lewis Acid) attacking a carbon compound, and destroying the bonds within the compound. As Dr. Farrell put it, "Has any of you ever had a bond broken? There are two kinds, the ones that go, 'Get away from me. Begone,' and the kind that happen slowly over time." Double wow.
Lastly he talked about how in a nucleophilic substitution, the more highly substituted carbon (the one with the most bonds) is the most stable. As he put it, "A tertiary (one with three other carbons attached to it) has a lot of friends to keep it together. A methyl, on the other hand, is all alone. It doesn't deal with bond breakage very well." Triple wow.
I've decided that week 3, day one O Chem class deserves a t-shirt. There will be a t-shirt made about this! I will make it so!
O Chem? Or Friendship 101? Your decide.
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1 comment:
Dave, I love you. Seems like you can't really get away from these things even up there. Well, yeah, you keep on truckin. And all that stuff.
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