Organic Chemistry Jeopardy

Functional groups, naming, stereochemistry, and reaction mechanisms on a free organic chemistry review board. Play it with phones as buzzers.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

For college and exam prep

Copies all 30 clues into an editor of your own. Free, no account needed.

Every clue on this board

This page is public, so anyone can read the answers — copy the board and swap a few clues before game day.

Functional Groups

$200
An -OH group bonded to an sp3 carbon defines this functional group.
What is an alcohol?
$400
A carbonyl carbon bonded to two other carbon atoms defines this functional group.
What is a ketone?
$600
Formed from a carboxylic acid and an alcohol, this functional group gives many fruits their smell.
What is an ester?
$800
This functional group contains a carbon triple-bonded to a nitrogen.
What is a nitrile?
$1,000
A carbonyl carbon bonded to a nitrogen defines this functional group, which links amino acids in proteins.
What is an amide?

IUPAC Nomenclature

$200
This is the IUPAC name for the straight-chain alkane with four carbons.
What is butane?
$400
This suffix ends the IUPAC name of an aldehyde.
What is -al?
$600
This is the IUPAC name for CH3CH2OH.
What is ethanol?
$800
The common solvent acetone has this IUPAC name.
What is propanone?
$1,000
Isobutane, with three methyl groups on one carbon, has this IUPAC name.
What is 2-methylpropane?

Stereochemistry

$200
Stereoisomers that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other are called these.
What are enantiomers?
$400
Stereoisomers that are not mirror images of each other are called these.
What are diastereomers?
$600
An equal mixture of two enantiomers, which shows no net optical rotation, is this.
What is a racemic mixture?
$800
A compound with stereocenters that is nonetheless optically inactive because of an internal mirror plane is this.
What is a meso compound?
$1,000
Cahn-Ingold-Prelog priorities are assigned first by this property of the atoms attached to the stereocenter.
What is atomic number?

Acids and Bases

$200
A Bronsted-Lowry acid is defined as a donor of this.
What is a proton?
$400
A Lewis base is defined as a donor of this.
What is an electron pair?
$600
The lower this logarithmic value, the stronger the acid.
What is pKa?
$800
Electronegative atoms near a carboxylic acid increase its acidity by withdrawing electron density through bonds, called this.
What is the inductive effect?
$1,000
Phenol is far more acidic than cyclohexanol because its conjugate base is stabilized by this.
What is resonance?

Substitution and Elimination

$200
This one-step substitution mechanism involves backside attack and inversion of configuration.
What is SN2?
$400
The rate-determining step of an SN1 reaction produces this intermediate.
What is a carbocation?
$600
Tertiary alkyl halides essentially do not undergo SN2 reactions because of this.
What is steric hindrance?
$800
This rule predicts that the more substituted alkene is usually the major elimination product.
What is Zaitsev's rule?
$1,000
In an E2 reaction, the hydrogen and the leaving group are best aligned in this geometric arrangement.
What is anti-periplanar?

Spectroscopy

$200
A strong, sharp infrared absorption near 1700 per centimeter indicates this group.
What is a carbonyl?
$400
A broad infrared absorption between about 3200 and 3550 per centimeter points to this bond in an alcohol.
What is O-H?
$600
In proton NMR, a signal from hydrogens with n equivalent neighboring hydrogens splits into this many peaks.
What is n + 1?
$800
This compound, Si(CH3)4, is the reference standard assigned 0 ppm in NMR.
What is tetramethylsilane?
$1,000
In mass spectrometry, an M+2 peak about one-third the height of the molecular ion peak signals this element.
What is chlorine?

Final Jeopardy — Handedness

A molecule that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image is described by this adjective, from the Greek word for hand.

What is chiral?

How to run this board

The board covers the first semester or two of organic chemistry: functional groups, IUPAC nomenclature, stereochemistry and chirality, acids and bases, substitution and elimination reactions, and spectroscopy.

This works well as a TA-run recitation review. Keep a whiteboard handy for mechanism and structure clues, and have the answering team draw the key intermediate or product before the points count.

Groups of three or four with one phone each is the right size. After any clue that stumps the room, work through it together before moving on - that minute of explanation is where most of the value is.

More from the library

Spotted a clue that's wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll fix the board. Or start from a blank board and write your own.