Organic Chemistry

The teaching aims to provide students with the basic knowledge needed to understand the structure of organic molecules, their most common reactions through the description of the main classes of organic compounds, the study of their chemical and physical characteristics, reactivity and preparative procedures with frequent references to environmental issues. The acquisition of the fundamental knowledge will be favoured by classroom exercises and self-evaluative asynchronous exercises. The course also includes a single-unit laboratory in which experiments will be carried out in order to acquire the ability for the correct execution of an experiment, including the basic safety rules regarding the handling and the disposal of organic substances. The laboratory experiments aim to instruct the basic knowledge of the fundamental purification techniques (crystallization, distillation and chromatography), the separation (extraction) and the reactivity of some organic compounds.

By the end of the course, the student will have acquired knowledge of the structure, chemical and physical properties of the main classes of organic compounds; will be able to apply the concepts of polar covalent bonding, hybridization, sigma and pi-Greek bonding, isomerization, and resonance to the identification of the arrangement of molecules in space, the recognition of functional groups present, and the assignment of the IUPAC name. The student will also able to critically analyze the organic molecules on the basis of their structure, recognizing their acidity/basicity, nucleophilicity/electrophilicity; will recognize whether a molecule has stereoisomers, understand and predict the reactivity of organic molecules on the basis of the functional groups in the molecular structure.
In addition, the student will acquire knowledge of the mechanisms of chemical transformations and to predict the products of a reaction from the analysis of the reactants, catalysts and reaction conditions employed. This ability will be developed by conducting classroom exercises through discussion between students and teacher. Furthermore, it will be possible to periodically verify the understanding of the skills acquired by carrying out exercises chosen by the teacher, available on an online platform.
The student will acquire the ability to propose simple synthetic strategies for the preparation of chemical compounds and to predict the physical characteristics and reactivity of organic molecules.
The student will be expected to acquire the ability to use vocabulary and terminology related to Organic Chemistry to transfer its knowledge also through the drafting of reports on the experiences carried out in the laboratory. The laboratory experiments will allow the student to be able to perform standard laboratory procedures and use instruments for organic synthesis.
By the end of the teaching, the student will have acquired the foundation for learning the preparatory topics for the Environmental Chemistry, Biochemistry, Food Chemistry and Chemical Toxicological Analysis teachings in subsequent years.