Up Learn – A Level Chemistry (aqa) – Organic Synthesis

Map of Organic Synthesis: Part 1

Outlining half of the organic reactions you’ll learn in Y13

Up Learn – A Level Chemistry (AQA)

Organic Synthesis

Here, we have all the reactions we looked at in year 12 

Now, when we studied the production of amines from halogenoalkanes [zoom in on this rxn and remove everything else so there’s more space]

We saw that we add excess ammonia so that we produce amines like this [show methylamine, ethylamine and propylamine]

These are all primary amines 

So, we can change amine here to primary amine. [1o amine]

Next, we saw another method to produce primary amines

We saw that we can reduce a nitrile to primary amine using…

We can reduce a nitrile to a primary amine using hydrogen gas and a metal catalyst like nickel.

Next, we saw that if we react a primary amine with excess halogenoalkane, we can produce…  [add a new dashed arrow from 1o amine w/ excess halogenoalkane] [This is all AMN3 stuff]

Primary amines have a lone pair of electrons [Show ethylamine w/ lone pair on nitrogen]

So, in excess halogenoalkane, a primary amine can undergo a nucleophilic substitution reaction to produce a secondary amine. [add nucleophilic substitution to arrow] 

Then, these secondary amines also have a lone pair of electrons

So, this secondary amine can undergo a nucleophilic substitution reaction with the halogenoalkane to form a tertiary amine.

And finally, tertiary amines also have a lone pair

So, this tertiary amine can undergo a nucleophilic substitution reaction with the halogenoalkane to form a quaternary ammonium salt. 

And so, we can add all of these reactions to our synthesis diagram like this [zoom back out and add the 1o amine – – > 2o amine etc. bit]

Next, we saw that primary amines can form secondary amides

For this reaction, we can react a primary amine with…

To form a secondary amide, we can react a primary amine with either an acyl chloride or an acid anhydride [add acyl chloride / acid anhydride below and add both arrows towards 2o amide]

And the two react via a…

To form a secondary amide, a primary amine reacts with either an acyl chloride or acid anhydride via a nucleophilic addition / elimination reaction. 

And finally, when we react an acyl chloride or acid anhydride with ammonia…

When we react an acyl chloride or acid anhydride with ammonia, they undergo a nucleophilic addition elimination reaction to form a primary amide!

To sum up, our diagram for organic synthesis so far…


Our diagram for organic synthesis so far looks like this