Amino acids, amides and chirality

Question 1

What are amides?

Answer 1

A compound containing a -CONH2 group.

Question 2

How are primary amides formed? What precauation must be taken?

Answer 2

● By reacting acyl chlorides with ammonia.
● You require a lot of NH3 to react with HCl to allow the reaction to go to completion

Question 3

What are amino acids?

Answer 3

A central carbon with an amino group and carboxyl group.

Question 4

What are optical isomers and what is required of them?

Answer 4

● Stereoisomers that are non-superimposable mirror images.
● 4 different groups attached to a carbon (called the chiral
centre).

• They can referred to as both are enantiomers / optical isomers.
• They can be distinguished by shining plane-polarised light and seeing the angle of rotation.

Question 5

How are primary amides converted to carboxylic acids? (reagents, type of reaction, equation)

Answer 5

• Reagents: HCl (aq)
• Type of reaction: acid hydrolysis
• Equation: CH3CONH2 + H2O + HCl → CH3COOH + NH4+Cl-