Spring - 3 Credits

A study of the more important classes of carbon compounds – especially those encountered in the biological sciences. Emphasis is placed on their three-dimensional structures, physical properties, mechanisms of characteristic reactions and utilizing combinations of reactions to illustrate multi-step synthesis strategies and develop problem-solving skills. Modern spectroscopic methods (NMR, MS and IR) are introduced and used to illustrate product identification. The course concludes with a survey of biological chemistry to illustrate the analogies with enzyme and cofactor catalysis.