Ch 12Basic Concepts of Organic Reactions — Class 11 Chemistry, concept-first.

Knowing WHAT an organic reaction produces is only half the story -- this unit is about HOW it gets there: which bonds break, which electrons move, and what fleeting species form along the way.

A chemical reaction is, at its core, a process in which some of the bonds already present in the reacting molecules break while new bonds form -- the reactant is converted into the product, and this c…

To actually use the idea of a mechanism, this unit builds up a small toolkit of fundamental concepts that recur in every organic reaction from here on.

All organic molecules are built from covalent bonds, formed by two atoms mutually sharing a pair of electrons.

Once a bond has broken -- homolytically into free radicals, or heterolytically into a carbocation-type or carbanion-type fragment -- the reacting species that come together to form new bonds fall into…

Beyond simply classifying a species as a nucleophile or electrophile, every organic reaction can be understood in a deeper, unified way by following the movement of electrons -- that is, tracking how…

So far, the unit has looked at electron movement during a reaction. But even before any reagent arrives, an organic molecule's own covalent bonds are not electronically neutral or static -- properties…

Individual organic compounds can undergo an enormous number of specific named reactions, but almost the entire universe of organic reactions can be sorted into just six broad mechanistic categories:

A substitution reaction (also called a displacement reaction) is one in which an atom or a group of atoms already attached to a carbon is replaced by a new atom or group.

An addition reaction is the characteristic reaction of an unsaturated compound -- one containing a localised C=C double bond or CC triple bond.

Beyond classifying reactions by mechanism, organic synthesis in practice is very often about functional group interconversion -- taking a molecule that already carries one functional group and convert…

Sample papers and previous-year board questions for this subject.