Arrow-Pushing in Organic Chemistry: An Easy Approach to Understanding Reaction Mechanisms 1st Edition

"The discussion of each class or reaction is both readable and informative and normally includes comparison of relative rates of similar reactions to demonstrate concepts such as nucleophilicity or steric hindrance. The major strength of the book involved the inclusion of problems at the end of each chapter. These are coupled with a set of very well discussed answers provided in the appendix. The problems fit well with the topic under discussion at each stage and the mechanistic answers and associated explanations are of a high quality. . . this text will make a useful addition to a university library or the supplementary reading list of a first year organic chemistry course." (Reviews, 1 December 2009)

"Does serve as a good support text for a more comprehensive organic text book. The high point of the book is the provision of a large number of carefully targeted problems at the end of each chapter, complete with well explained worked answers. I am sure that these will be highly useful to students who wish to practice the use of the ‘curry arrow." (Physical Sciences Centre Reviews, 1 December 2009)

"The most valuable materials in the book are the many solved problems." (Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, January 22, 2009)

"Arrow Pushing in Organic Chemistry fills an important gap in undergraduate education, and I would encourage every instructor of organic chemistry to seriously evaluate this text, as a substantive aid. This book is definitely well worth its price!" (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, January 12, 2009)

The first two semesters of organic chemistry are almost universally daunting to the student. The use of organic reaction mechanisms has greatly reduced the memorization, but most organic books skimp a bit on explaining how to write a clear reaction mechanism in order to limit their already gargantuan size (and cost). Along comes Arrow Pushing in Organic Chemistry by Levy (director of synthetic chemistry, Intradigm Corp.), a book that tries to clearly and succinctly explain writing organic mechanisms to these students. It does an excellent job in this. The work includes a large number of challenging end-of-chapter problems, with complete answers in the appendix (this appendix accounts for nearly half of the book). These problems may be too challenging for the typical sophomore organic student who may rely too much on the complete answers. This monograph is an excellent supplement but not a replacement for sophomore-level organic chemistry course resources. Most other monographs on organic reaction mechanisms are geared for the advanced undergraduate or graduate student. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduate organic chemistry students. (J.H. Glans, Sacred Heart University, Choice, February 2009)

Look at any typical organic chemistry book and you'll probably be intimidated by its sheer size, the encyclopedic presentation of reactions, and the huge amount of material to memorize. As this book explains, there is a better and easier way to approach the subject—the arrow pushing strategy that reduces organic chemistry to the study of interactions between organic acids and bases and builds from there. This approach helps you develop deductive or predictive insight into the progression of starting materials to products and by what mechanisms the transformations occurred. A valuable companion to any introductory organic chemistry textbook, Arrow Pushing in Organic Chemistry:

• Defines the concept of arrow pushing in context with various reaction types, functional groups, mechanism types, reagents/nucleophiles, and leaving groups

• Explains the concepts of organic acids and organic bases, and then uses them to explain fundamental reaction mechanisms, beginning with SN2 reactions and progressing to SN1 reactions and other reaction types

• Emphasizes electron flow from atom to atom

• Includes a summary and problem sets with each chapter to help you solidify learning

Using this approach, you should be able to derive predicted products from almost any hypothetical organic reaction. Instead of relying on rote memorization, you develop an in-depth understanding of, and an almost intuitive insight into, reactions.

This excellent companion text makes organic chemistry more approachable and exciting for students. It's also ideal for professionals who want to refresh their knowledge or for scientists from other disciplines, such as inorganic and physical chemists, biochemists, biologists, and pharmaceutical scientists who are new to the field.