This report provides information about a free-of-charge, trilingual (Portuguese, Spanish, and English) game-based application that engages high school and undergraduate students in reviewing the structural theory of organic compounds in a challenging way. In Time Bomb Game, students must disarm a time bomb on their own by correctly answering random questions from a database with 621 questions. Students and professors have tested and evaluated the app, and the results revealed that the game design, content, playability, and usefulness are helpful as a complementary didactic tool to provide students with the required theoretical knowledge.

The preparation of amide-containing compounds is among the most interesting and challenging topics for the synthetic community. Such relevance is given by their reactive aspects explored in the context of...

A partnership between Brazilian and French professors resulted in the design of a hybrid board game composed of one physical board, a few physical cards, and one application to engage undergraduate students to review the reactions of organic compounds in fun and collaborative ways. It is a multilingual game (English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French) and can be downloaded free-of-charge. Students must get six knowledge jewels to win the game by answering random true or false questions from a database with 600 statements. Students from both countries played and evaluated the game, and the results revealed that the game is helpful as a complementary didactic tool to aid students in reviewing the organic reactions.

Racemic phenylethyl halohydrins acetates containing several groups attached to the aromatic ring were resolved via hydrolysis reaction in the presence of lipase B from Candida antarctica (Novozym ® 435). In all cases the kinetic resolution was highly selective (E > 200) leading to the corresponding (S)-β-halohydrin with ee > 99%. However, the time required for an ideal 50% conversion ranged from 15 min for 2,4-dichlorophenyl chlorohydrin acetate to 216 h for 2chlorophenyl bromohydrin acetate. Six chlorohydrins and five bromohydrins were evaluated, the latter being less reactive. For the β-brominated substrates steric hindrance on the aromatic ring plays a crucial role, which is not observed for the β-chlorinated derivatives. To shed light on the different reaction rates docking studied of all the substrates have been carried out using molecular dynamics simulations. The computational data obtained for the β-brominated substrates based on the parameters analyzed such as NAC (near attack conformation), distance between Ser-O and carbonyl-C and oxyanion site stabilization are in agreement with the experimental results. On the other hand, the data obtained for β-chlorinated substrates suggest that physical aspects such as high hydrophobicity or induced change in the conformation of the enzymatic active site are more relevant aspects when compared to steric hindrance effects.

Sulfones and carboxylic acids are prominent motifs widely present in the chemical structure of agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and many other highly valuable compounds. Herein, we describe a conjunctive strategy for the precise installation of these functionalities onto styrenes using sodium sulfinates and CO 2 as coupling partners. The protocol allowed the preparation of carboxy-sulfonylated compounds in good yields and broad functional group tolerance. Additionally, taking advantage of the leaving group ability of the sulfone moiety, a one-pot photocatalytic carboxy-sulfonylation-elimination strategy was developed for the synthesis of α-aryl-acrylates.