[Gregorian]

Hello, I am looking for a difficult or unanswered organic chemistry question for my extra credit assignment. What do you guys suggest ?
I am open to anything that involves thinking and deserves some research

Thank You

[macman104]

How long do you have for this assignment (because it's almost the end of the semester for me)?
The research, do you have access to research facilities and a lab, or do you mean research as in looking up information and reading the literature?
What year are you also?

[Gregorian]

The semester is almost over for me too, but this is an extra credit assignment for Organic II. It is a research-like paper on something that is interesting enough for my professor... something that is being researched in big schools and/or labs "something that is worth reading"

I looked up some questions and this is some of what I've found

""""
What is the origin of homochirality in nature?
Most biomolecules can be synthesized in mirror-image shapes. Yet in organisms, amino acids are always left-handed, and sugars are always right-handed. The origins of this preference remain a mystery.

Does the proton decay?
In a theory of everything, quarks (which make up protons) should somehow be convertible to leptons (such as electrons)--so catching a proton decaying into something else might reveal new laws of particle physics


What is the structure of water?
Researchers continue to tussle over how many bonds each H2O molecule makes with its nearest neighbors.

Are there limits to rational chemical synthesis?
The larger synthetic molecules get, the harder it is to control their shapes and make enough copies of them to be useful. Chemists will need new tools to
keep their creations growing. """""

but none of these questions is interesting enough for me,


any help?

thanks

[macman104]

Ah, ok!  I understand, so more like a report on a current topic in organic chemistry?  That's kind of a cool project!  Anyway, wow, I'm so terrible at these kinds of things (coming up with intriguing questions and such), sorry!  But good luck, it's a cool project, I might want to read it when you're done!

[Gregorian]

haha.. yea it is pretty cool, but the problem is we don't have enough time to do it and I am not as smart as you guys here are lol... we'll see. My teacher said that he used to assign a multi-synthesis problem that works perfectly on paper, but doesn't work in the lab, but students failed to give good reasoning on why it doesn't work in the lab. I asked him to email it to me and if he does so I will post it here after I try working on it
if you think of anything, remember me please =) Thanks

[azmanam]

maybe you can get some inspiration here?

http://chemknowhow.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=46

[Gregorian]

thank you,
any other suggestions ?

[semper erectus]

well, these ones for you guy..


Why is the norbornyl cation so stable? Is it symmetrical? This problem has been largely settled for the unsubstituted norbornyl cation, but not for the substituted cation.



What is the origin of the bond rotation barrier in ethane, steric hindrance or hyperconjugation?




What is the origin of the alpha effect?. Nucleophiles with an electronegative atom and one or more lone pairs adjacent to the nucleophilic center are particularly reactive.

hope you'' enjoy it!

semper erectus, freshman chemistry student
of adventist university of the philippines