Structure and bonding. Orbital symmetry and orbital mixing rules.  Steric and electronic effects. Structure and properties of charged and neutral reactive intermediates. Structure and energetics. Inter- and intramolecular non-covalent interactions. Reactivity, kinetics and mechanisms, energy surfaces and transition states: Hammond Postulate, Curtin-Hammett principle. Linear free energy relationship: Hammett and Taft equations. Isotope effects. Acids and bases. Aromaticity. General principles of organo, metal (including photoredox) and enzyme catalysis. Study of organic reaction mechanisms: electrophilic, nucleophilic, radical and pericyclic reactions.

Structure and stereochemistry. Chirality. Symmetry elements and point groups. Relative and absolute configuration. Chiral molecules without chiral centers. Conformation of open chain and cyclic compounds, atropisomerism. Properties and separation of stereoisomers. Topicity of ligands and faces. Stereochemistry of ring systems: fused, bridged and caged. Different types of strain, modes of ring formation, Baldwin rule. Stereoselective and stereospecific synthesis. Stereochemistry and mechanism of reactions.

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6. P. Vogel and K.N. Houk, Organic Chemistry-Theory, Reactivity and Mechanism in Modern Synthesis, Wiley-VCH, 2019.