Archive for the ‘Interesting chemistry’ Category

Aromatic electrophilic substitution: a different way of predicting regiospecificity

Saturday, April 4th, 2009


Every introductory course or text on aromatic electrophilic substitution contains an explanation along the lines of the resonance diagram shown below. With an o/p directing group such as NH2, it is argued that negative charge accumulates in those positions as a result of the resonance structures shown.

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A lab in a backpack

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

We recently developed a new computational chemistry practical laboratory here at Imperial College. I gave a talk about it at the recent ACS meeting in Salt Lake City. If you want to see the details of the lab, do go here. The talk itself contains further links and examples. Perhaps here I can quote only the final remark, namely that computational chemistry can now provide chemical accuracy for many problems, including spectroscopy and mechanism, and that the basic tools for doing it can easily be carried around in a backpack! Or, perhaps in the not to distant future, an iPhone!

The SN-1 Reaction live!

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Pericyclic assistance for SN-1 solvolysis

Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Pericylically assisted solvolysis. Click above to see model.

Click on diagram to see model.

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Jmol and WordPress: Loading 3D molecular models, molecular isosurfaces and molecular vibrations into a blog

Saturday, April 12th, 2008