Book Description

The second edition of the book continues to offer a range of pedagogical features maintaining the balanced approach of the text. The attempts have been made to further strengthen the conceptual understanding by introducing more ideas and a number of solved problems. Comprehensive in approach, this text presents a rigorous treatment of organic chemistry to enable undergraduate students to learn the subject in a clear, direct, easily understandable and logical manner. Presented in a new and exciting way, the goal of this book is to make the study of organic chemistry as stimulating, interesting, and relevant as possible. Beginning with the structures and properties of molecules, IUPAC nomenclature, stereochemistry, and mechanisms of organic reactions, proceeding next to detailed treatment of chemistry of hydrocarbons and functional groups, then to organometallic compounds and oxidation–reduction reactions, and ending with a study of selected topics (such as heterocyclic compounds, carbohydrates, amino acids, peptides and proteins, drugs and pesticides, dyes, synthetic polymers and spectroscopy), the book narrates a cohesive story about organic chemistry. Transitions between topics are smooth, explanations are lucid, and tie-ins to earlier material are frequent to maintain continuity. The book contains over 500 solved problems from simple to really challenging ones with suitable explanations. In addition, over 275 examples and solved problems on IUPAC nomenclature, with varying levels of difficulty, are included. About Some Key Features of the Book • EXPLORE MORE: Four sets of solved problems provide in-depth knowledge and enhanced understanding of some important aspects of organic chemistry. • MINI ESSAYS: Three small essays present interesting write-ups to provide students with introductory knowledge of chemistry of natural products such as lipids, terpenes, alkaloids, steroids along with nucleic acids and enzymes. • NOTABILIA: Twenty-two ‘notabilia boxes’ interspersed throughout the text highlight the key aspects of related topics, varying from concepts of chemistry to the chemistry related to day-to-day life. • STRUCTURES AND MECHANISMS NOT IN ORDER: Cites examples of common errors made by students while drawing structural formulae and displaying arrows in reaction mechanisms and helps them to improve on language of organic chemistry by teaching appropriate drawings and their significance. • GLOSSARY: Includes ‘Name reactions’, ‘Reagents’, and some important terms for quick revision by students. Clearly written and logically organized, the authors have endeavoured to make this complex and important branch of science as easy as possible for students to learn from and for teachers to teach from.