Our second look at resonance structures and an introduction to the curly arrow notation. Curly arrows are a powerful tool for organic chemists, helping us predict reactions. The downside is that students hate them as they take a while to understand, hence this summary (and at least one other in the future).

Undergraduates often struggle with the delocalization of electrons and the subject of resonance. This is understandable, it is a fudge-factor required so that chemists’ simple line diagrams better represent real molecules. Here we try to demystify this topic, but undoubtedly cause more confusion!

Formal charges act as a signpost to indicate which atoms are sharing (or not) their electrons in an unusual manner in a Lewis structure. They give more insight into electron distribution and hence reactivity and physical properties.

A brief introduction to organic nomenclature. A bit longer than I hoped as I added some examples (pluses and minuses I guess).

How to draw and interpret skeletal or line diagrams

A brief summary of common functional groups

An overview of hybrid atomic orbitals and how they are applied to valence bond theory.

A quick introduction to thin layer chromatography - hopefully useful for first year labs.

A short description of Lewis structures