Day 15 - Chapter 20..

The second half of Chapter Twenty took way longer than I expected, but there was a lot of new information to absorb. I've uploaded the complete set of Chapter 20 notes on my Dropbox, which can be accessed here.

Some things that were covered in the final half of the chapter included reactions between Enols/Enolates and: 

• Carbon
• Halogens (Br2, Cl2, etc.) 
• Silicon (in the form of SiMe3Cl) 
• Sulfur (in the form of PhSCl) 
• Nitrogen (specifically to convert a carbonyl into a 1, 2 - dicarbonyl) 

Whenever Nitrogen is involved, I start to trip up. I'm not even sure why. Maybe it's the nomenclature? I don't know. It's just something about Nitrogen - I can't get a feel for it, haha. I'm really hoping that the lectures will clear up the Nitrogen fog in my brain. 

I don't think the next assigned chapter (which is Chapter 25) will be covered in lectures until the 2nd week of June. So for now, I'm going to focus more on problem sets and improving my "feel" for carbonyl chemistry. Fortunately, I'm already starting to get the hang of it (mainly because I've been actively employing Technique #4).

Technique #7: This tip is to complement Technique #4. After I correctly predict a mechanism from the textbook, I write myself a little motivational message (ex. "I got it right!"). It sounds childish, but it's my attempt at linking some sort of dopamine response with successful mechanisms, and it helps me enjoy OChem (more than I already do (; ). You'll see some real examples of this in my uploaded notes for Chapter 20 (excuse the cursing). 

Today's Tune: I Don't Like (Instrumental) - Chief Keef