Organic Chemistry 7th Edition by John E. McMurry

Book Preface

I love to write. I get real pleasure from taking a complicated subject, turning it around until I see it clearly, and then explaining it in simple words. I write to explain chemistry to students today the way I wish it had been explained to me years ago.  The enthusiastic response to the six previous editions has been very gratify­ing and suggests that this book has served students well. I hope you will find that this seventh edition of Organic Chemistry builds on the strengths of the first six and serves students even better. I have made every effort to make this new edition as effective, clear, and readable as possible; to show the beauty and logic of organic chemistry; and to make organic chemistry enjoyable to learn.

Organization and Teaching Strategies This seventh edition, like its predeces­sors, blends the traditional functional-group approach with a mechanistic approach. The primary organization is by functional group, beginning with the simple (alkenes) and progressing to the more complex. Most faculty will agree that students new to the subject and not yet versed in the subtleties of mecha­nism do better this way. In other words, the IVhnt of chemistry is generally eas­ier to grasp than the wliy. Within this primary organization, however, I place heavy emphasis on explaining the fundamental mechanistic similarities of reac­tions. This emphasis is particularly evident in the chapters on carbonyl-group chemistry (Chapters 19-23), where mechanistically related reactions like the aldol and Claisen condensations are covered together. By the time students reach this material, they have seen all the common mechanisms and the value of mechanisms as an organizing principle has become more evident.

The Lead-Off Reaction: Addition of HBr to Alken es Students usually attach great importance to a text’s lead-off reaction because it is the first reaction they see and is discussed in such detail. I use the addition of HBr to an alkene as the lead-off to illustrate general principles of organic chemistry for several reasons: the reaction is relatively straightforward; it involves a common but important functional group; no prior knowledge of stereochemistry or kinetics in needed to understand it; and, most important, it is a polar reaction. As such, I believe that electrophilic addition reactions represent a much more useful and realistic introduction to functional-group chemistry than a lead-off such as radical alkane chlorination.  Reaction Mechanisms ln the first edition of this book, I introduced an innova­tive format for explaining reaction mechanisms in which the reaction steps are printed vertically, with the changes taking place in each step described next to the reaction arrow. This format allows a reader to see easily what is occurring at each step without having to flip back and forth between structures and text. Each successive edition has seen an increase in the number and quality of these vertical mechanisms, which are still as fresh and useful as ever.

Organic Synthesis Organic synthesis is treated in this text as a teaching device to help students organize and deal with a large body of factual information-the same skill so critical in medicine. Two sections, the fu-st in Chapter 8 (Alkynes) and the second in Chapter 16 (Chemistry of Benzene), explain the thought processes involved in working synthesis problems and emphasize the value of starting from what is known and logically working backward. In addition, Forns 011 boxes, including The Art of Organic Synthesis, Combinatorial Chemistry, and Enantiose­lective Synthesis, further underscore the importance and timeliness of synthesis.

Modular Presentation Topics are arranged in a roughly modular way. Thus, cer­tain chapters are grouped together: simple hydrocarbons (Chapters 3-8), spec­troscopy (Chapters 12-14), carbonyl-group chemistry (Chapters 19-23), and biomolecules (Chapters 25-29). I believe that this organization brings to these subjects a cohesiveness not found in other texts and allows the instructor the flexibility to teach in an order different from that presented in the book.  Basic Learning Aids ln writing and revising this text, I consistently aim for lucid explanations and smooth transitions between paragraphs and between topics. New concepts are introduced only when they are needed, not before, and they are immediately illustrated with concrete examples. Frequent cross references to earlier material are given, and numerous summaries are provided to draw information together, both within and at the ends of chapters. In addi­tion, the back of this book contains a wealth of material helpful for learning organic chemistry, including a large glossary, an explanation of how to name polyfunctional organic compounds, and answers to all in-text problems. For still further aid, an accompanying Study Guide nnd So/11tio11s Mn1111nl gives summaries of name reactions, methods for preparing functional groups, functional-group reactions, and the uses of important reagents.