Modern Physical Organic Chemistry

I have been a professional chemist for more than 30 years. This book is probably the best on physical organic chemistry that I have ever come across. The book is over 1000 pages in length. I read the book from cover to cover. There is not a single chapter that is boring. The book covers a wide range of topics in physical organic chemistry. These topics include molecular structures, stereochemistry, conformational analysis, molecular recognition and supramolecular chemistry, acid and base chemistry, thermodynamics, kinetics and mechanism, organometallic chemistry, polymers, organic electronic theory, pericyclic reactions, photochemistry and organic materials. The treatment of each topics is well beyond elementary level. It is the intent of the authors that the book will be able to provide the necessary background for reading current research literature. Excercises are provided at the end of each chapter. The problems in the Excercises Section are interesting and challenging. I strongly encourage any graduate student to attempt these problems. Many interesting examples are given throughout each chapter. To illustrate, here is an interesting example given in the chapter of "Advanced Concepts in Electronic Structural Theory". Using the simple Huckel molecular orbital analysis, the two molecules cyclobutadiene (CBD) and trimethylenemethane (TMM) are known to have the same molecular orbital pattern for their pi electrons. In other words, these two molecules have one bonding orbital, two degenerate non-bonding orbitals and one anti-bonding orbital. Both are 4-electron systems. We therefore expect that there will be two unpaired parallel spin electrons in the degenerate non-bonding orbitals. Both molecules would have a triplet ground state. However, more advanced analysis shows that the spin preferences of the two systems are different. CBD is expected to exist as a singlet ground state while TMM is expected to exist as a triplet state. The authors provide an extremely clear explanation for such an analysis. In the case of CBD, the two non-bonding orbitals are disjoint. Two molecular orbitals are said to be disjoint when there are no atoms in common in their LCAO's. Consequently, the exchange integral of the two electrons in the two non-bonding orbitals are zero. When electron correlation is incorporated into the analysis, CBD is found have a singlet ground state with a rectangular structure, instead of a perfect square, of alternate double and single bond. This is sometimes known as pseudo Jahn-Teller distortion. In the case of TMM, the non-bonding orbitals are non-disjoint. The exchange integral consequently is non-zero and a triplet ground state is preferred. This concept of spin preference is used to explain one of the strategies used in the synthesis of magnetic organic material. Examples of applications of physical organic chemistry principles to biological systems and technologies (such as liquid crystal) are also found throughout the book. Beyond any doubts, this book is going to be the standard text for graduate students in organic chemistry for many years to come. If after reading this book and your interest in physical organic chemistry is not aroused, I do not believe that I will be able to find you a more interesting book on physical organic chemistry. The only criticism that I want to make is that I wish the authors would cover more on density functional theory. This part of theoretical chemistry is fast becoming more and more popular in current research. I also hope that the authors will update the book frequently.

Well written and easy to follow textbook. Provides valuable information to both beginners and advanced scientists in the physics of organic chemistry.

This was an excellent resource for graduate level organic chemistry. It was an excellent read. For anyone rusty with undergraduate organic chemistry, there is an appendix at the of the book that reviews core concepts. The rest of the book covers a large volume of modern experimental chemistry and computational work, and was very useful in my graduate studies.

I bought this book after my first semester of organic chemistry because I loved whenever my professor would go into more intricate and subtle details of reaction mechanisms; I was in over my head for 1 semester of experience, but returning after my second semester made understanding much easier. First 3 chapters / chapter 7 + 8 were really good for a fairly comprehensive overview of what effects / thermodynamic consequences matter. However, it's definitely readable without having taken P-chem, you just might not be able to do any calculations / work any problems. Chapter 10 + 11 is where the organic reactions are (about 150 pages!). And at the end, for anyone doing computational chemistry / how electronic structure theories are built, it does an AMAZING job of walking through the very very basics and where each advancement was made / assumptions that helped lead to them. Overall, even with material that I haven't encountered at all, I was still able to follow along and understand the general ideas. This book is incredibly well written, and I 100% recommend it to anyone wanting to learn some more 'real world' organic chemistry. I've bought more expensive books that have helped me much much less than one.

I bought this for a graduate level physical organic chemistry course, but most of the material will be accessible to a Junior/Senior undergrad majoring in a relevant subject. The book begins with molecular orbital theory. It gives you a foundation for how to build simple molecular orbitals, and then how to mix simple molecular orbitals to generate the orbitals for more complex molecules. This is explained using intuition and visualizations rather than math. In fact, the book is surprising non-mathematical for a physical chemistry book. Acid-Base chemistry, stereochemistry, and stability are studying through the molecular orbital picture. The middle chapters are about reactivity, kinetics, and mechanisms. The reactivity and mechanisms emphasize frontier orbital interactions, while the kinetics sections allow you to develop an intuitive understanding of potential landscapes under different scenarios. The final chapters are in electronic structure. Computational methods are introduced for how to perform QM calculations, there is some photochemistry and electronic materials. While great introductions, if you are more interested in the computational aspects or mathematical derivations you will need to look somewhere else. I recommend this to anyone who wants to achieve an intuitive understanding of why molecules behave as they do, rather than just accepting dogmas from sophomore organic chemistry. If you have taken sophomore organic chemistry you will be able to understand most of this, and with physical chemistry you should have no trouble understanding the material.

We used this text in an advanced organic class. Having not had organic chemistry in a few years before taking this class, I had some catching up to do. This book is very dense, but can be very useful. Being a physical chemist I really liked the physical chemistry aspect of it. There is a lot of material in this book, and it's not always completely straightforward, but it's not impossible to understand. This is a good book for an advanced class or someone who wants a deeper understanding of organic chemistry. This is also definitely the largest textbook I've purchased in the last 4 years.

As expected

I purchased this book since it was one of the few that our professor mentioned in his class. I got it really fast shipped to my destination, the quality of the bound version is excellent and the style is simple and clear. Each chapter will offer you profound insights into an interesting topic of modern physical organic chemistry and some chapters can also be applied to chemistry in general (MO theory, acid base chemistry, etc.). The authors manage to present the matter in a simple manner, yet not omitting important details. It is a thrilling reading and the interconnections and "going deeper highlights" complete a fantastic book. I'm sure this book will accompany me for a very long time!