Lecture

Organic Chemistry: Basic Concepts and Resonance Structures

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In course

CH-110: Advanced general chemistry I

Le cours comporte deux parties. Les bases de la thermodynamique des équilibres et de la cinétique des réactions sont introduites dans l'une d'elles. Les premières notions de chimie quantique sur les électrons et les liaisons chimiques, exemplifiées en chim ...

Description

This lecture covers the basic concepts of organic chemistry, focusing on the factors influencing molecule stability and reactivity. Topics include protonation, acidity, atom size effects, electronegativity, and resonance structures. The instructor explains how resonance structures help understand the stability of molecules and their reactivity, emphasizing the importance of electron delocalization and bond strength.

Instructors (7)

Jérôme Waser

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

Philippe Schwaller

Beat Fierz

Teaching & PhD PhD Students Paria Khalafi, Wei Cai, Pierre Alexander Miranda Herrera, Andrei Zhauniarovich, Matteo Nicolas Doudin, Zongqing Li, Enguerran Majerus, Po-Han Chang, Iana Berlina, Yuji Kamei Past EPFL PhD Students Aurore Marie-France Delachat, Sinan Kilic, Louise Catherine Bryan, Andreas Linus Bachmann, Ninad Dilip Agashe, Nora Guidotti, Maxime Nicolas Mivelaz, Kristina Makasheva, Alexandra Teslenko, Pauline Franz, Salome Riccarda Püntener, Ly Phillippe Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Dani

Angela Steinauer

Since 2022: Head of the Laboratory of Biomolecular Engineering and Nanomedicine (LIBN), EPFL (Switzerland)2019-2021: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow at ETHZ (Switzerland)2018: Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Yale University (USA)2007-2012: B.Sc. & M.Sc. in Chemistry from University of Zurich (Switzerland) Teaching & PhD PhD Students Diogo Miguel De Abreu Viegas, Georges Barnikol, Oliver Dennis, Andrea Elizabeth Melgar Aguilar, Paula Oeser, Manutsawee Thanaburakorn Courses Advanced general chemistry I CH

Jacques-Edouard Moser

Jacques-Edouard Moser is titular professor in physical chemistry and is currently directing the Group for Photochemical Dynamics (Moser Group) of EPFL. He is a graduate of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, where he received a diploma degree (MSc) in chemical engineering in 1982. After two stays in 1984 and 1985 at Concordia University in Montréal (Canada), he earned in 1986 his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at EPFL (Michael Grätzel, thesis advisor). In 1986, he joined the Eastman Kodak Corporate Research Laboratories at Rochester (NY, USA) as a postdoctoral fellow and was later associated with the NSF Center for Photoinduced Electron Transfer at the University of Rochester. Returning to Switzerland, he was appointed as a lecturer of physical chemistry at EPFL in 1992 and was awarded the habilitation and the venia legendi in 1998. He is titular professor since 2005.His research activity focuses on the study of the dynamics of photoinduced electron transfer and charge carrier separation at donor-acceptor heterojunctions and in nanostructured semiconductors. He is the author and co-author of ca 200 scientific papers (H-index 75). He currently teaches general physical chemistry to freshmen students in chemistry. He gives two classes on general- and redox photochemistry in the MSc program in chemistry and chemical engineering and the doctoral programs in energy and photonics. Jacques-E. Moser presided the Swiss Society of Photochemistry and Photophysics (1995-1998) and chaired the jury of the Grammaticakis-Neumann international prize in photochemistry (1999-2001). He was a member of the board of the Swiss Chemical Society (2007-2012). He served as a member of the standing committee of the European Photochemistry Association (1992-2000) and of the executive committee of the division for fundamental research of the Swiss Chemical Society (1999-2014). He was the director of the Section of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of EPFL and a member of the direction of the School of Basic Sciences from 2007 to 2015.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Chemistry

Inorganic chemistry: Coordination chemistry

Related concepts (32)

Resonance (chemistry)

In chemistry, resonance, also called mesomerism, is a way of describing bonding in certain molecules or polyatomic ions by the combination of several contributing structures (or forms, also variously known as resonance structures or canonical structures) into a resonance hybrid (or hybrid structure) in valence bond theory. It has particular value for analyzing delocalized electrons where the bonding cannot be expressed by one single Lewis structure.

Bond energy

In chemistry, bond energy (BE), also called the mean bond enthalpy or average bond enthalpy is a measure of bond strength in a chemical bond. IUPAC defines bond energy as the average value of the gas-phase bond-dissociation energy (usually at a temperature of 298.15 K) for all bonds of the same type within the same chemical species. The bond dissociation energy (enthalpy) is also referred to as bond disruption energy, bond energy, bond strength, or binding energy (abbreviation: BDE, BE, or D).

Acid

An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. hydrogen ion, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis acid. The first category of acids are the proton donors, or Brønsted–Lowry acids. In the special case of aqueous solutions, proton donors form the hydronium ion H3O+ and are known as Arrhenius acids. Brønsted and Lowry generalized the Arrhenius theory to include non-aqueous solvents.

Resonance

Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillating force is applied at a resonant frequency of a dynamic system, the system will oscillate at a higher amplitude than when the same force is applied at other, non-resonant frequencies. Frequencies at which the response amplitude is a relative maximum are also known as resonant frequencies or resonance frequencies of the system.

Delocalized electron

In chemistry, delocalized electrons are electrons in a molecule, ion or solid metal that are not associated with a single atom or a covalent bond. The term delocalization is general and can have slightly different meanings in different fields: In organic chemistry, it refers to resonance in conjugated systems and aromatic compounds. In solid-state physics, it refers to free electrons that facilitate electrical conduction. In quantum chemistry, it refers to molecular orbital electrons that have extended over several adjacent atoms.

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