CHEMISTRY STUDENT GUIDES. GUIDED BY STUDENTS
Why did the drug thalidomide cause birth defects? What is the chemical
difference between sucrose and lactose in your food? Stereochemistry
holds the answer and is essential to the understanding of the chemistry
of life.
Stereochemistry is an important concept that often causes confusion
amongst students when they learn it for the first time. Unlike most
other areas of chemistry, it requires the chemist to visualise molecules
in 3D, which can be difficult. In this book we deal with tricky concepts
like conformation and configuration, how to represent them accurately
and how to use the correct terms to describe them in both organic and
inorganic chemistry. We involved students in the writing process to
ensure we deal with areas that you find difficult, in an understandable
language. With problems designed to focus on common errors and
misconceptions, real life examples, and practical hands-on exercises
coupled with visualisation tips, our intention is to give you the tools
to become confident in stererochemistry.
Complementing mainstream organic textbooks, or self-study, this book is
for anyone who has struggled with describing alkenes as E or Z,
assigning R and S absolute configurations, drawing Newman projections or
chair representations of cyclohexanes, axial chirality, understanding
the stereochemistry of octahedral metal complexes and indeed explaining
complexities observed in NMR spectra.
Chemistry Student Guides are written with current students involved at
every stage, guiding the books towards the most challenging aspects of
the topic. Student co-authors for Introduction to Stereochemistry are
Caroline Akamune, Michael Lloyd and Matthew Taylor.
