Resumen de Telling It Like It Is:: Teaching Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry
In this article I support and extend the ideas presented by J. Brent Friesen in his article Saying What You Mean; Teaching Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry (JCE November, 2008). I emphasize “telling the truth” about proton transfers. The truth is that in aqueous acid most reactions are subject to specific acid catalysis: the only kinetically significant proton donor is hydronium ion, and the only kinetically significant proton acceptor is water. Similarly, in aqueous base most reactions are subject to specific base catalysis: the only kinetically significant proton donor is water, and the only kinetically significant proton acceptor is hydroxide ion.
