We describe an integrated set of experiments for the undergraduate organic laboratory that allows students to compare and contrast biological and chemical means of introducing chirality into a molecule. The racemic reduction of ethyl acetoacetate with sodium borohydride and the same reduction in the presence of a tartaric acid ligand are described, and a capillary gas chromatography column packed with a chiral material for product analysis is introduced. The results of these two hydride reactions are compared with the results of a common undergraduate experiment, the baker's yeast reduction of ethyl acetoacetate.

No abstract

We describe an experiment for the undergraduate organic laboratory curriculum in which 2-bromoacetophenone is converted to 2-fluoroacetophenone using a solid-phase nucleophilic fluorine source. The experiment introduces students to the utility of solid-phase reagents in organic synthesis, to NMR-active nuclei other than 1H without the requirement of a special NMR probe, and to the unique uses of fluorine in molecular design.