📄️ Chirality
Chiral materials are objects that cannot be superimposed with their mirror image. The best way to think of this is with the analogy of your hands. You have a left and a right hand. They are identical and are mirror images of each other. But your left hand can never be in the same position as your right hand, unless you break some bones. This same idea applies to chiral compounds. Chiral compounds have two pairs: a right-handed and left-handed structure (R)- and (L)-. Each individual structure is called an enantiomer. The pair make up a racemic mixture.
📄️ Kinetics vs. thermodynamics
Kinetics vs thermodynamics
📄️ Nucleophillic substitution reactions
There are many types of reactions that occur in organic molecules. The three main are substitutions, additions and eliminations. In my PhD project, the main reaction that was used to synthesise small molecules was a nucleophilic substitution.
📄️ Soap Saponification
A soap is defined as an organic compound with a hydrophillic head and hydrophobic tail. This is usually achieved through the synthesis of salts with longer alkyl chains. Commercially (and in the food industry), it is achieved by saponifying oils/fats. Thus, saponification is the conversion of oil to soap (fatty acid salt) and is expressed by the chemical reaction: