Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2025 Paper 2 B8 b iv Solution 2026-10-20
For an intact complex in the usual fast-conformational-averaging regime, counting distinct chemical shifts rather than individual split lines gives , , signals.
In , the uncoordinated pyridinium arm permits the paired positions of a monosubstituted cyclopentadienyl ligand to average: its four ring hydrogens give two sets, . The linker gives one set, the four inequivalent pyridinium C–H positions give four, its N–H gives one, and the two symmetry-related bound acetonitrile methyl groups give one. Hence . The exchangeable N–H resonance may be broadened or absent experimentally; nine is the structural count before exchange removes it.
In the rigid cis-dicarbonyl chelates and , the different pyridyl-N and fourth-leg donors destroy the operation that related the two sides of the substituted ring. Each of the four Cp hydrogens is distinct, and the two linker hydrogens are diastereotopic. Together with four pyridine C–H sites, this gives . The remaining bound acetonitrile adds one methyl signal to , giving 11; has none, giving 10. The two enantiomers of a racemate have identical spectra in an achiral solvent and do not double these counts. This prediction assumes resolved resonances and no rapid chelate opening that averages inequivalent sites; variable-temperature proton nuclear magnetic resonance would test that assumption.
Disconnect the new bond between the two six-carbon units. One portion of bromocyclohexane supplies a grignard reagent; another supplies cyclohexene oxide:A bulky strong base can favour E2 elimination in the alkene-forming step; a peracid such as meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid provides epoxidation. None of its carbons enters the target.
Treat cyclohexene oxide with cyclohexylmagnesium bromide, then perform acidic aqueous work-up. Backside attack on one epoxide carbon breaks its C–O bond and installs cyclohexyl opposite the retained oxygen. Protonation of the oxygen gives trans-2-cyclohexylcyclohexan-1-ol, the required relative configuration. The two six-carbon reactant portions supply all 12 target carbons. An achiral synthesis produces a racemic mixture trans pair; obtaining only the particular enantiomer represented by the drawing would require resolution or an enantioselective step. The useful stable chair can place the two large trans-1,2 substituents approximately diequatorial.
The key stereochemical disconnection is the cis-1,3-disubstituted cyclopentane, not a direct functionalization of two arbitrary cyclopentane positions. A Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene with nitroethylene fixes both ends of the new two-carbon bridge on the same face of the original five-membered ring.
Isolate the useful nitronorbornene adduct, convert its secondary nitro group to a ketone by a Nef reaction, and then hydrogenate the remaining ring alkene to norcamphor. Performing the nitro-to-ketone conversion before catalytic hydrogenation avoids simply reducing the nitro group to an amine.
Use a Baeyer-Villiger oxidation to insert oxygen between the carbonyl carbon and its adjacent bridgehead carbon. Bridgehead migration is favoured over migration of the competing methylene; isolate the required lactone regioisomer if necessary. This opens the way to a hydroxy cyclopentyl side chain without breaking the original five-carbon ring. In the resulting bridged lactone, one original cyclopentadiene terminus is bonded to O and the other bears the segment.
Reduce the lactone selectively with DIBAL to its lactol. Ring opening of that lactol gives the aldehyde equivalent cis-3-hydroxycyclopentyl-. The ring OH and the two-carbon aldehyde side chain are cis because their original attachments were the two ends of the Diels–Alder bridge; neither the migration nor lactol opening inverts those cyclopentane carbons.
Perform a Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction on the lactol/aldehyde equilibrium using , where . Preform the phosphonate anion and allow for consumption of base by the lactol OH. Standard stabilized-phosphonate conditions favour the required E- unit. No further hydrogenation should follow it.
The required ester substituent can be prepared by reducing 4-methylpentan-2-one to 4-methylpentan-2-ol, esterifying with bromoacetic acid, and performing an Arbuzov reaction with triethyl phosphite to make the phosphonoacetate. No absolute configuration is indicated at that alcohol-derived centre.
Bridge-derived cis ring stereochemistry plus E-selective phosphonate olefination gives both specified relationships. Achiral cycloaddition and subsequent reagents give a racemic pair with this relative configuration; isolation of one absolute enantiomer would require resolution or an asymmetric variant. The acid fragment contains nine carbons: five from cyclopentadiene, two from nitroethylene and two from the phosphonoacetate. The ester alkyl group adds six, giving fifteen overall. The atom tracing in the original schematic in question 8 shows why oxygen insertion retains the five-membered ring rather than producing a six-membered carbocycle.
The five-membered enone-like carbon framework can be obtained by an intramolecular aldol condensation ofEnolization at an internal methylene next to one ketone followed by attack on the opposite ketone closes a five-membered ring. dehydration leaves one acetyl group attached to one alkene carbon and one methyl group on the other. The two nitrile-bearing carbons remain adjacent and their original cis relationship is retained if epimerization is avoided.
Now reverse a reductive ozonolysis: the diketone arises by opening a six-membered cyclohexene whose alkene carbons each carry Me. That cyclohexene is the Diels-Alder reaction product of 2,3-dimethylbuta-1,3-diene and maleonitrile. The latter is the supplied cis dinitrile. The stereospecificity of the cycloaddition puts the two CN groups on the same face.
Thus the forward plan is Diels–Alder addition, reductive ozonolysis, then five-membered aldol ring closure and dehydration. Use a reductive ozone work-up that stops at the diketone. During the final step, avoid prolonged strongly basic heating because the carbons bearing CN can be deprotonated and epimerized. Achiral reagents give the racemic pair with the required cis relationship; resolution would be necessary if only the depicted enantiomer were required. The diene supplies six carbons and maleonitrile supplies four, accounting for all ten carbons without an unexplained carbon deletion.
C has the original cyclohexadiene connectivity but trans, rather than cis, adjacent methyl groups. Draw one methyl wedge and the other dash, keeping both phenyl groups at the diene termini. One enantiomer is shown below; reversing both stereobonds gives its mirror image. For the symmetric achiral starting framework under achiral conditions, the two trans enantiomers are not distinguished by this orbital-symmetry argument.
Trans dimethyl cyclohexadiene from thermal closure of the photogenerated triene
. Original product drawing. Opposite stereobonds specify the two methyl faces; the mirror image is obtained by reversing both. Details.Disconnect the two new bonds of the isoxazolidine as a nitrone [3+2] cycloaddition. Suitable achiral partners are and the trans enone .
A practical catalyst family is Cu(II) with an enantiopure bis(oxazoline) Ligand in coordination chemistry, for example a Cu(OTf)–BOX complex. The enone can bind through its ketone oxygen and pyridine N-oxide oxygen, giving an O,O-chelated assembly. Chelation both activates the conjugated double bond and fixes its orientation in the chiral pocket. Highly enantioselective cycloadditions of this substrate class with Cu(II)–BOX complexes are experimentally established.[ref]
The nitrone carbon bonds to the enone carbon and the nitrone oxygen bonds to the carbon. Thus the carbonyl-bearing carbon lies between the two phenyl-bearing ring carbons, as in the target. The trans enone gives the required trans relationship of its original acyl and phenyl substituents. Selection between endo/exo dipole approaches gives the remaining relative stereochemistry; the sterically preferred chelated transition-state arrangement places the two ring phenyl substituents on the same face and the acyl group on the opposite face, matching the drawing.
One enantiomer of the BOX Ligand in coordination chemistry exposes one enone face; its mirror image reverses the product's absolute stereochemistry. The exact Ligand in coordination chemistry substituents, metal counterion and temperature require optimization. The proposal identifies an experimentally supported catalyst platform and its stereochemical control elements, rather than claiming that an arbitrary BOX complex must give a specified numerical enantiomeric excess.
The first step is an endo-selective Diels-Alder reaction of the pyrone diene with the electron-poor acrylamide. Number the pyrone , and the acrylamide carbons and , with next to its carbonyl. The favored polar connection is C3–C and C6–C, leaving C4=C5 and the original C2–O1 lactone bridge intact.
Lithium allyloxide, generated from n-Butyllithium and allyl alcohol, attacks the bridging lactone carbonyl. Collapse of the tetrahedral intermediate cleaves its acyl–oxygen bond. proton transfer converts the former O1 bridge into an OH substituent at C6 and leaves the former pyrone carbonyl as an allyl ester attached to C3. The morpholine amide is retained.
Thus C is allyl 1,4-dihydroxy-2-(morpholine-4-carbonyl)cyclohex-5-ene-1-carboxylate, with the stereochemistry described below. In this product numbering C1 is the former pyrone C3, C2 is the acrylamide , C3 is , and C4 is the former pyrone C6.
The bridge fixes the former C3 carboxyl group and C6 oxygen on the same face. An endo acrylamide places its amide substituent on that face too. Accordingly COallyl at C1, the C2 amide and the C4 OH are cis; the C1 OH is on the opposite face. The alternative face of attack gives the enantiomer, so achiral reagents give a racemate. The band is consistent with the newly formed ester, while the strong lower-frequency band is consistent with the retained, strongly polarized amide carbonyl. These bands support carbonyl-class retention; they do not independently prove the predicted regioisomer or stereochemistry.
An individual bipyramid is chiral. Matching helicities at the two iron centres give the homochiral and enantiomers, with the three spanning connections winding in opposite senses in the two structures. The idealized molecular framework has a threefold axis but no mirror plane, inversion centre or improper rotation that converts it into itself. Achiral synthesis can give a racemic mixture of these chiral cages; racemic bulk composition does not make each cage achiral. The corresponding experimentally characterized methyl-substituted Fe–Pd bipyramid contains both homochiral enantiomers in its crystal.[ref]
The idealized cage is chiral, with point group , rather than . The eight iron tris-chelate units have the same helicity within one cage; the two enantiomers are all- and all-. The fourfold axes pass through opposite Pd face centres, and the threefold axes pass through opposite Fe corners. There are also proper twofold rotations through opposite cube-edge midpoints. These proper rotations preserve the local handedness. Mirror planes, inversion and improper rotations would reverse each Fe propeller and are absent from an individual homochiral cage. The proper cubic group has 24 operations: , , , along the face axes and along edge axes. Real conformations and crystal packing can lower this idealized molecular symmetry.
The oxime is reduced at its C=N bond rather than cleaving N–O: hydride addition to the imine carbon followed by protonation gives an N-substituted hydroxylamine. In a chair-like model of the cis-fused ring system, the fused framework and methyl group make the two faces inequivalent. The favoured hydride trajectory accesses the face that places the newly installed C–H bond behind the original drawing and the retained C–NHOH bond in front, giving D. It avoids the more congested trajectory into the folded bicyclic framework; a flat hexagon comparison alone misses this facial distinction.
The existing methyl and junction centres are retained. The selectivity is therefore diastereoselective substrate control, not enantioselectivity from sodium cyanoborohydride, which is achiral. For a racemic starting bicycle the same relative stereochemical preference gives a racemic pair of D enantiomers.
Polarimetry Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
Polarimetry measures optical rotation with a polarimeter. The vertical Vernier Go Direct instrument uses a light-emitting diode source, fixed polarizer, sample cell, motor-driven polarimeter analyzer, photodetector and optical rotary encoder. Calibrate using the same solvent at fill height; rinse with sample, fill to , and read the meniscus to . The readout plots illumination against analyzer angle; a maximum near zero or a cosine-squared fit locates .[ref]
Go Direct Polarimeter User Manual by Vernier. Using the Product steps 2–4; Specifications; How the Sensor Works
An actual teaching experiment in the Truman State University-hosted Optical Activity Laboratory handout, revised July 2013, uses sucrose chemical solutions. Weigh the sucrose, dissolve completely without heating, and measure final solution volume for concentration. Use one polarimeter throughout; measure the water blank's extinction reading, then each sample's extinction reading and actual liquid path length near . Subtract the blank and plot corrected optical rotation against concentration. The attached apparatus description specifies a vertical light path, an incandescent or tungsten source with yellow filter, sheet polarizers and a rotating eyepiece polarimeter analyzer. Its coarse demonstration permits temperature control to the nearest , path length to the nearest millimeter and approximately angular precision. These are design tolerances, not measured results.[ref]
Optical Activity Laboratory, Truman State University. Optical Activity Laboratory, revised July 2013, pp. 1–2 Experiment 1; p. 3 The Design and General Use of Simple Polarimeters
For a quantitative comparison, equilibrate blank, reference and sample at the same recorded temperature; use a thermostatted cell when needed. This is a recommended control, not a claim that the teaching instruments provide a thermostat. A yellow filter also passes a band of wavelengths, so its result need not match a narrow-source reference exactly. The laboratory's concentration series tests the linear model rather than establishing it in advance; a second series varying only path length tests the other factor.
For our original ideal model, Malus's law giveswhere is light intensity immediately before the ideal polarimeter analyzer, after sample transmission. It is not the intensity of the original unpolarized source. The angle difference is evaluated in consistent units; the plotted degree values are converted to radians before computing the cosine. Assume transmitted light retains linear polarization, with negligible scattering and no polarization-dependent absorption. The pure positive model, mixture and racemate shift the maxima to , and , respectively. Minima shift by the same amount, to , and . Thus an extinction measurement and a maximum measurement recover the same shift after their respective blanks are subtracted.
Repeat blanks and use a reference to check drift and scale. Bubbles, particles, stressed windows and sample absorption can spoil the ideal curve. Vernier specifies accuracy; the manual's fit reproducibility does not establish that accuracy. It warns against interpreting its illumination readout quantitatively and requires a transparent homogeneous sample.[ref]
Go Direct Polarimeter User Manual by Vernier. Using the Product, cosine-squared fit; Specifications; Troubleshooting, illumination and sample limits
Neither a zero reading nor a matching specific rotation uniquely identifies a molecule. Racemate 2026-10-14
A racemate contains the same amount of substance of each member of an enantiomer pair. Their equal and opposite contributions cancel in ordinary solution polarimetry under identical conditions. Zero net optical rotation therefore does not establish achirality of the individual molecules.[ref]
5.8 Racemic Mixtures and the Resolution of Enantiomers. McMurry, Organic Chemistry, §5.8: equal enantiomer populations and cancelling optical rotations
Racemic mixture 2026-10-20
An equimolar mixture of two enantiomers.
Specific rotation Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
For a chemical solution in a validated linear regime,where is path length in and is solute mass per final solution volume in . These conventions give specific rotation units . Specify solvent, temperature and wavelength : specific rotation is conditional on the sample environment.[ref]
5.3 Optical Activity. McMurry, Organic Chemistry, §5.3: observed rotation divided by path length and mass concentration
For an original model, stipulate an unnamed enantiomer pair in the same achiral solvent at and wavelength . Assign the positive member specific rotation , assumed constant over the modeled concentrations. With and ,These are chosen model parameters, not measured properties of a named material. Doubling only or only doubles within this stipulated linear model; doubling both multiplies it by four. A real chemical solution must be checked for concentration dependence rather than assuming that is dilute enough.
For an additive mixture containing only this enantiomer pair as solutes, put and write for their mass concentrations. ThenBecause enantiomers have the same molar mass, their relative mole fractions within the pair also equal their relative mass fractions: , . Thus , which connects optical rotation to enantiomeric excess.
Stereoisomer 2026-10-14
Stereoisomers have the same chemical bond connectivity but different spatial arrangements. A mirror pair of distinct stereoisomers comprises enantiomers; diastereomers have no mirror-pair relation.
Tetrahedral mirror-image test 2026-10-14
Take a central chemical atom at the origin and four substituents at the vertices of an ideal regular tetrahedron:These dimensionless coordinates describe shape, not measured bond lengths. For distinct labels A, B, C and D, define a signed determinantIt is six times the oriented volume of the labelled tetrahedron. A translation cancels from the differences. A rotation has and preserves , whereas the mirror matrix has and changes it to . Consequently no rotation can place every distinct label on its mirror partner. This argument uses three-dimensional coordinates, not clockwise order on a page.
Now let C and D both be the same substituent H. Swapping these identical groups is allowed. For this model the half-turnabout the axis maps the reflected A and B to their original positions and exchanges the two H positions. The models superpose. With distinct C and D, the same half-turn fails precisely at those two labels; the determinant argument rules out every other rotation as well. This is the local reason two identical hydrogen chemical atoms prevent glycine's amino acid alpha carbon from being a tetrahedral stereocenter.
The same spatial half-turn succeeds only when the exchanged groups are identical
. Original model, mirror model and rotated mirror model. Top: the distinct C and D remain mismatched, so the A/B/C/D model is chiral. Bottom: the identical H groups may exchange, so the A/B/H/H model is achiral. The operation is an actual three-dimensional rotation about , with determinant . Details.For a flexible molecule, also distinguish conformational isomerism from a persistent enantiomer pair. A particular frozen shape may be chiral while ordinary internal motions interconvert mirror shapes. Turning the entire model is always allowed in a spatial comparison; an internal motion must be considered with its actual accessibility and timescale.





