My basic question is, is it possible to derive a chemical equation (given the substrates and the reagents) and find out the products? I am clear with the basics like carbon tetra-valence, Lewis Structure etc. (pre-organic chemistry, though I am not completely thorough I am pretty strong at it).
Well its possible to derive the chemical equation if you know reactants and reagents and stuff but the thing is, you might draw it on a paper but when you do the reaction in a lab, you might get something totaly different (that is case for more complex structures and "advanced" reactions tbh)
This is pretty much it... You can make predictios based on analogies with other reactions taking into account reagents, conditions, and mechanisms elucidated for the reactions.
But the truth is that you can never know for sure. In practice, you can expect a reaction to work perfectly, but you don't even get your expected product at trace levels.
In general, the more complex the reagents are, the more difficult would be to make an actual prediction.
I suppose that at your level, you will be asked to be able to predict products accepting several premises, so you should stick with that, but always have in mind that what works on paper do not necesarily have to work on the lab.
I've gone through my school textbook and has learnt the basics of the organic chemistry. But at certain points like the one for homolytic cleavage, my text never mentions the conditions for the occurrence of homolytic cleavage. Moreover the syllabus does not correspond to the mechanism often. It does not encourage a critical approach towards the subject rather than a rote one.
Don't be so obsesive with "cleavages". Most organic reactions you will study at your level (which I don't know but I suppose is like organic chemistry but not from a pure Chemistry degree?) are just based on moving pairs of electrons. Focus on the understanding of what nuclephiles/electrophiles acids/bases oxidants/reducing agents are.
Moreover, if your book do not show the mechanism for a reaction, just Google it. You probably will find something.
To add an example. We know that certain compounds for instance lets say CH3Cl, cleaves into CH3+Cl- as Chlorine is more electronegative than Carbon (I believe that is the mechanism).
That molecule will just not cleave in ions under no drastic conditions. Most organic molecules wont (exceptions: carbocations, like those formed on E1 or Sn1 reactions or carbanions, like carbenes)
That molecule can undergo a nucleophilic substitution so a nuclephile, like lets say, bromide, attacks the carbon, so the chlorine leaves and CH3Br is formed, in a concerted 1 step mechanism (no cleavages!). You can say that the molecule is POLARIZED towards the chlorine, ie, partial negative charge on chlorine and partial possitive charge on carbon. Not
You need to understand each type of basic mechanisms and its basis, then you can start to get serious.
But if we take the case of RMgCl, which is a Grignard's Reagent, during a reaction RMgCl cleaves as R-[Mg+Cl] but Chlorine which is more electronegative does not take the electron and cleave as RMg+Cl- (or am I wrong?).
You have an organometallic compoud there, still not a ionic compound! So again it will not cleave in ions under normal conditios. You have an STRONG negative charge on carbon and partial possitive charge on the metal. This makes Grignard reagents very good nucleophiles (and bases, of course)
in case of grignard reagent, it cleaves to
R- + [MgCl]- (because its Mg3+ and Cl-)
You'd better fix that "3" just in case any mad inorganic chemist is watching us
@Hijaz Aslam, it is Mg2+
For instance, I have no idea how hyperconjugation works though I know the theory.
Hyperconjugation is a tricky concept that is usually just briefly explained (or even just mentiones) in undergrad courses. In my opinion it shouldn't be even mentioned in basic courses, because to truly understand the concept, requires a bit of a quantum-chemistry molecular orbitals background.
In a nutshell, you can sawy that hyperconjugation is a kind of interaction (normally stabilizing, but that can be destabilizing) somehow similar to that present in pi conjugation (which is the interaction between p orbitals), but that occurs between sigma bonds and adjacent empty p orbitals.
Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperconjugationhttps://www.princeton.edu/chemistry/macmillan/group-meetings/hyperconjugation.pdfTBH I have no idea what is the theory behind hyperconjugation, but I know that the result is that hydrogen at carbons adjacent to groups like CO or NO2 (in non aromatic systems) are acidic (or at least we were told that its due to hyperconjugation) which than have some interesting consequences in some reactions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetoacetic_ester_synthesis
I believe that hyperconjugation is not the best concept to explain acidic properties of α to carbonyl hydrogens.
Even though is some cases it can contribute to the stabilization of the enolate, (e.g., tetrasusituted enolates are formed as a more thermodynamically stable products, due to the stabilization produced by the hyperconjugation of sigma bonds between sp2 and sp3 carbons with the empty p orbitals of the alkene,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Enolate_regio_1.svg/315px-Enolate_regio_1.svg.png) the reason of this is ust that the negative charge is delocalized through the carbonyl groups by resonant effect.
I would like to know how to keep in mind certain reactions and use it in conversions. And where can I get lots of conversion sheets (class +2) level, particularly Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers and Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids.
Do not memorize reactions, understand basic mechanisms, and apply them to ANY reaction you find
Here are the most important:
SN2 Reaction: Bimolecular Subsitution -
http://www.chemhelper.com/sn2.htmlSN1 Reaction: Unimolecular Substitution -
http://www.chemhelper.com/sn1.htmlE1: First Order Elimination -
http://www.chemhelper.com/e1.htmlE2: Second Order Elimination -
http://www.chemhelper.com/e2.htmlElectrophilic Addition to Alkenes -
http://www.chemhelper.com/elecadd.htmlNucleophilic Addition to Carbonyl Groups -
http://www.chemhelper.com/nucadd.htmlFree Radical Halogenation -
http://www.chemhelper.com/frhalog.htmlThose schemes?
In Volhardt's Organic chemistry you have some in the end of most chapters.
Also I believe those are good:
http://store.masterorganicchemistry.com/pages/catalog?home_button (not trying to spam, I found that blog good, so I suppose the material they provide could be handy)
But I did not purchase them, so I cannot tell you for sure.
You can probably find lots of them free on the internet too.