• Hydrocarbons: Reaction of alkanes with super acids – Alkenes: alkoxymercuriation; oxydrilation; ozonolysis; hydroboration-oxydation- Stereospecific reductions of alkynes - Mono-electronic reduction of alkynes by solutions of metals in liquid ammonia - Polyenes: 1,4 addition reaction of conjugated dienes- The Birch reaction of arenes - Aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbons.
• Halogenated organic compounds: Vinyl halides, halo arenes, allylic halides, benzyl halides - Nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions - Aryne intermediates - Radical nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction.
• Heterocyclic compounds: Resonance energy of aromatic heterocycles with one heteroatom - Relative reactivity - Orientation of electrophylic aromatic substitution reactions - Basicity and molecular structure - Nucleophilic substitution reactions of pyridine - Pyridine-N-oxide - Heterocycles with more than one heteroatoms.
• Organometallic compounds: Generality - Grignard reagents: use in the organic synthesis - Cadmium organic reagents - Organocopper reagents - Reformatsky reaction –Ullman reaction; biphenyls and biphenyl stereochemistry - Transition metal coordination complexes in homogeneous catalysis - Heck reaction - Suzuki reaction - Metallocenes.
• Radical reactions of organotin compounds.
• Carbenes, nitrenes and nitrenium ions: Structure, formation and properties - Reactivity - Addition and insertion reactions - Carbenoid reagents - Acyl nitrenes.
• Oxygenated organic compounds: Epoxides: synthesis and reactivity – Regiochemical/stereochemical aspects of ring-opening reactions - Other cyclic ethers - Crown ethers - Phenol, salicylic acid and derivatives - Reactivity of the alpha hydrogens of carbonyl compounds - Enols and enolates - Enamines - Alpha-beta unsaturated carbonyl compounds: conjugate additions; Michael addition - Phosphorus and sulphur ylides - Wittig reaction.
• Polyfunctional compounds, lipids and surfactants: Dicarboxylic acids - unsaturated acids, hydroxy acids and lactones - Macrocyclic lactones - Keto acids - Fats, oils, soaps, waxes and phosphoglycerides - Phase transfer catalysis.
• Organic nitrogen compounds: Reduction of nitro compounds - Hofmann degradation reaction – Hofmann elimination reaction - Cope elimination reaction.
• Organosulfur compounds: Thiols, disulfides, sulfoxides and sulfones - Chiral sulfoxides - Sulfonium salts - Thioesters - Sulfenic, sulfinic and sulfonic acids and their derivatives