Talk:Module1:rp1207

1.2.1 Cp dimer: Energies and structures all OK. What "stereoelectronic effect" do you mean, to explain the kinetic formation of 2? Not clear that you understand what torsional strain is (you mention "bond angles", which isn't directly relevant). Did you try to relate the energy terms for 3/4 to actual features of their structures?

1.2.2. NAD: Energy for 5 is OK, so I assume the structure is also. The Grignard mechanism you've drawn is NOT correct - you've drawn displacement of H- instead of addition! Similarly for the amine ADDITION reaction. Your energies for 7 are very high, but I can't see why as I can't rotate your structures. In fact, there should be both "up" and "down" C=O structures for 7.

1.2.3 Energy for 10 is OK. As you say, 9 is high as the 6-ring is in a twist boat. In fact it is possible to find a chair, "up C=O" isomer. What particular structural features of the alkene make it hyperstable (i.e what specific interactions)?

1.3.1 Carbene: orbitals and frequencies OK. You didn't comment on the difference between the two C=C stretches.

Mini-project: The point of this exercise was partly to show that you'd thought about how you would tell the isomers apart. I think it's unlikely that IR (and especially dipole moment, which is rarely measured by synthetic chemists) would do this, so I wouldn't have spent time calculating them. The key thing here would surely be 1H NMR J-values, which you haven't discussed at all. For the 13C, you haven't compared the spectra of the two isomers to see if they could be distinguished. To explain the observed stereoselectivity - see my 2nd yr course - the bulky reagent attacks equatorially, to give the axial alcohol. Overall more discussion/thought applied to your molecules would have been good.