In addition to these courses, Dicky is actively involved in teaching organic and organometallic chemistry at EPFL and regularly provides training to the Swiss national team for the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO).
Introduction of orbitals, stereochemistry, alkane and alkene, alkyne, alkyl halide, alcohols, epoxides, ethers and its reactions, SN1, SN2, E1, E2 and E1cb reactions, benzene and aromaticity, electrophilic aromatic substitutions, SNAr reactions, aldehyde and ketones: Nucleophilic addition substitutions, carboxylic acids and its derivative, nitriles: nucleophilic acyl substitution, α-substitution reactions, condensation reactions, amines and heterocycles, pericyclic reactions, important named reactions.
(If time is allowed) More on molecular structure, acids and bases, crystals, molecular symmetry, bonding in transition metals, basics in main group chemistry, inorganic cages, inorganic reaction mechanisms, electronic spectra of metal complexes, metal-metal bonds and clusters, f-block chemistry.
Basics of organometallic chemistry (coordination chemistry, M-C sigma bonds, carbonyl and phosphine complexes, complexes with pi-bounded ligands, ligand substitution reactions, oxidative and reductive elimination, insertion and elimination, electrophilic and nucleophilic addition and abstraction, metal carbene and carbyne complexes), basics in catalysis (rules from organometallic chemistry, named reactions, metal carbenoids, annulation reactions, ene-yne cycloisomerization, gold catalysis)
(Together with AOC) Energy surfaces, transition state theory, postulates and principles related to kinetic analysis, kinetic experiments, deciphering mechanisms, methods for following kinetics, rate constants, isotope effects, substituent effects, Hammett plots, linear free energy relationships. Ir-catalyzed C-H activation, C-O activation, C-C activation, catalytic reversible reaction, metal carbene and nitrene in catalysis, redox catalysis with phosphorus, metal-metal bond in catalysis, redox active ligand
Structural Elucidation (Mass spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, NMR/EPR spectroscopy)
Conformational analysis, stereoselective synthesis of carbonyl addition reactions, α-functionalizations of enolates, aldol reactions, allylations of C=O bonds, chiral acetals, macrocyclic stereocontrol, alkene hydroboration, reductions and oxidations of olefins, additions to C=N bonds, conjugate additions, sigmatropic rearrangements, Diels-Alder and its related reactions, cycloaddition reactions. Radical reactions and photochemistry, umpolung reactions.
(Together with IOC) Energy surfaces, transition state theory, postulates and principles related to kinetic analysis, kinetic experiments, deciphering mechanisms, methods for following kinetics, rate constants, isotope effects, substituent effects, Hammett plots, linear free energy relationships. Ir-catalyzed C-H activation, C-O activation, C-C activation, catalytic reversible reaction, metal carbene and nitrene in catalysis, redox catalysis with phosphorus, metal-metal bond in catalysis, redox active ligand
Retrosynthetic analysis and construction of 3-7-membered rings in natural products.