Carbon compounds and the logic of building them on purpose.
12 topics · 12 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Organic Chemistry With a Biological Emphasis
Tim Soderberg · 2011
A free, complete organic chemistry course that motivates every mechanism by the biological reaction it resembles, rather than teaching reactivity and…
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
The Use of Organomagnesium Compounds in Preparative Organic Chemistry
Victor Grignard · 1912
Shows that magnesium-carbon reagents made from alkyl halides add cleanly to carbonyl compounds, turning carbon-carbon bond formation into a routine…
+2 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
On the Molecular Asymmetry of Natural Organic Products
Louis Pasteur · 1860
Argues, from the optical activity of separated tartaric acid crystals, that molecular asymmetry rather than mere crystal shape distinguishes the…
+7 more at this level
12 works
Tim Soderberg
A free, complete organic chemistry course that motivates every mechanism by the biological reaction it resembles, rather than teaching reactivity and biology as separate subjects.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Victor Grignard
Shows that magnesium-carbon reagents made from alkyl halides add cleanly to carbonyl compounds, turning carbon-carbon bond formation into a routine synthetic operation.
link checked 17 Sept 2026E. J. Corey
Formalises retrosynthetic analysis as a systematic disconnection of a target molecule into simpler precursors, turning synthesis planning into a teachable method rather than an intuition.
link checked 17 Sept 2026International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
Sets out the rules for naming organic compounds unambiguously, from simple alkanes through fused polycyclic systems to stereochemical descriptors.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Louis Pasteur
Argues, from the optical activity of separated tartaric acid crystals, that molecular asymmetry rather than mere crystal shape distinguishes the products of living matter from synthetic ones.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Robert Robinson
Synthesises the alkaloid tropinone in one step from simple starting materials by mimicking the biogenetic pathway plants use, rather than building the ring system piece by piece.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Hans Fischer
Works out the porphyrin ring structure shared by haemin and chlorophyll and describes synthesising haemin from simple starting materials, establishing the pyrrole-based heterocycle common to both pigments.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Louis P. Hammett
Shows that substituent effects on reaction rates and equilibria follow a single linear free-energy relationship, founding physical organic chemistry as a quantitative discipline.
Christopher K. Ingold
Classifies organic reactions by their electronic mechanism — SN1, SN2, E1, E2 — replacing a list of named reactions with a small set of general mechanistic types.
R. B. Woodward & Roald Hoffmann
Argues that the outcome of pericyclic reactions is fixed by the symmetry of the reacting molecular orbitals rather than by steric accident, making their stereochemistry predictable in advance.
R. B. Woodward
Recounts the collaborative total synthesis of vitamin B12's cobalt-corrin cage, at the time the most structurally complex molecule ever built step by step from simple starting materials.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Ryoji Noyori
Argues that a single chiral metal catalyst, not a stoichiometric chiral reagent, can install absolute stereochemistry across a wide range of substrates efficiently enough for industrial use.
link checked 17 Sept 2026