Functional Group Chemistry presents the chemistry of functional groups with an emphasis on patterns of reactivity, the consequences of the relative electronegativity of the atoms that constitute functional groups, the role of lone pairs and the stereochemistry of reactions at a particular group.

The material is presented in four chapters. The first chapter describes some of the general principles that affect the reactivity of functional groups. The second chapter examines the chemistry of functional groups involving (sigma)- C-X bonds as in alkyl halides, alcohols, ethers, amines and organometallic reagents. The third chapter covers the chemistry of both symmetrical and unsymmetrical (pi)-bonded functional groups, typified by alkenes and carbonyl groups. The final chapter concentrates on aromatic compounds. It is concerned with the interactions between an aromatic ring and functional groups that are attached to it, such as their effect on the orientation of aromatic substitution. Each chapter concludes with a series of problems.

The chemistry of the functional groups is considered here with a mechanistic rationale. Students are encouraged to consider the reactivity of functional groups in terms of their regions of electron deficiency and excess, and hence to identify the sites at which nucleophiles and electrophiles might react.