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Lecture

Radical Chemistry: Tuberculosis Treatment and Alkane Halogenation

In course

CH-120: Advanced general chemistry II

Acquisition des notions fondamentales liées à la réactivité des molécules organiques, identification de la structure de petites molécules organiques au moyen des techniques de spectrométrie de masse, spectroscopie infra-rouge et résonance magnétique nucléa ...

Description

This lecture covers the basics of tuberculosis, its treatment with antibiotics, and the challenges of drug-resistant tuberculosis. It also explores the radical halogenation of alkanes, focusing on the selectivity and environmental impact of chlorination and bromination reactions. The instructor discusses the mechanisms of radical reactions, the stability of radicals, and the functionalization of alkanes using transition metals. Additionally, the lecture delves into the use of platinum-based systems like the Shilov system and biological oxidation with enzymes like Cytochrome P450. Students will learn about key concepts such as radical reactions, orbital diagrams, radical stability, and alkane functionalization.

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Instructors (2)

Jérôme Waser

Jérôme Waser biography and CV's are available on the following website: http://lcso.epfl.ch/waser

Luc Patiny

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Related concepts (32)

Radical substitution

In organic chemistry, a radical-substitution reaction is a substitution reaction involving free radicals as a reactive intermediate. The reaction always involves at least two steps, and possibly a third. In the first step called initiation (2,3), a free radical is created by homolysis. Homolysis can be brought about by heat or ultraviolet light, but also by radical initiators such as organic peroxides or azo compounds. UV Light is used to create two free radicals from one diatomic species.

Radical (chemistry)

In chemistry, a radical, also known as a free radical, is an atom, molecule, or ion that has at least one unpaired valence electron. With some exceptions, these unpaired electrons make radicals highly chemically reactive. Many radicals spontaneously dimerize. Most organic radicals have short lifetimes. A notable example of a radical is the hydroxyl radical (HO·), a molecule that has one unpaired electron on the oxygen atom. Two other examples are triplet oxygen and triplet carbene (꞉CH2) which have two unpaired electrons.

Alkane

In organic chemistry, an alkane, or paraffin (a historical trivial name that also has other meanings), is an acyclic saturated hydrocarbon. In other words, an alkane consists of hydrogen and carbon atoms arranged in a tree structure in which all the carbon–carbon bonds are single. Alkanes have the general chemical formula . The alkanes range in complexity from the simplest case of methane (), where n = 1 (sometimes called the parent molecule), to arbitrarily large and complex molecules, like pentacontane () or 6-ethyl-2-methyl-5-(1-methylethyl) octane, an isomer of tetradecane ().

Reaction mechanism

In chemistry, a reaction mechanism is the step by step sequence of elementary reactions by which overall chemical reaction occurs. A chemical mechanism is a theoretical conjecture that tries to describe in detail what takes place at each stage of an overall chemical reaction. The detailed steps of a reaction are not observable in most cases. The conjectured mechanism is chosen because it is thermodynamically feasible and has experimental support in isolated intermediates (see next section) or other quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the reaction.

Free-radical halogenation

In organic chemistry, free-radical halogenation is a type of halogenation. This chemical reaction is typical of alkanes and alkyl-substituted aromatics under application of UV light. The reaction is used for the industrial synthesis of chloroform (CHCl3), dichloromethane (CH2Cl2), and hexachlorobutadiene. It proceeds by a free-radical chain mechanism. The chain mechanism is as follows, using the chlorination of methane as a usual example: 1. Initiation: Splitting or homolysis of a chlorine molecule to form two chlorine atoms, initiated by ultraviolet radiation .

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