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Curved Arrows: Practice Exercises

You should draw curved arrows whenever you practice organic chemistry. If you do this, you will have more than enough opportunities for practice. I have included a few extra exercises here just to help you get started. Answers will appear in a new browser window.

Note: If you want more practice, open your textbook to a chemical reaction mechanism, e.g. Carey 5/e, p. 725. If the author has added curved arrows to the reactants, cover the product with your hand, and use the author's drawing of reactants + arrows to predict the product.

#1.

A. How many electron pairs change position in each reaction below? Add this many arrows to the reactants so that the product will be obtained (forward problem). Then, pretend the reaction runs in reverse and add this many arrows to the products so that the reactant will be obtained (backward problem)

answer to forward problem | answer to backward problem

B. Same as 1A for the following reaction:

answer to forward problem | answer to backward problem

C. Same as 1A for the following resonance forms:

answer to forward problem | answer to backward problem

#2.

A. The following curved arrow drawing contains one or more mistakes in the arrows and/or the product's formal charges. Correct the drawings by moving the arrows, changing the number of arrows, correcting the product's formal charges as needed.

answer

B. Same as 2A for the following drawing.

answer

C. Same as 2A for the following drawing.

answer

#3.

A. Complete the following drawing by using the arrows to draw a Lewis structure for the product. Make sure your drawing includes formal charges.

answer

B. Same as 3A for the following drawing.

answer

C. Same as 3A (draw the missing resonance form) for the following drawing.

answer

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