Textbook of Organic Chemistry is meant for students who learn organic chemistry at the undergraduate level and who have already had exposure to the basics of chemistry, including an introduction to organic chemistry. This book conforms to the syllabus of Indian Universities at the undergraduate level, but can be useful to students at a more advanced level also.The book has a deductive approach and reduces the need to learn by rote. The objectives are listed at the beginning of every chapter which gives the student an overview of the chapter. Each chapter has been structured in a logical and interesting manner that facilitates easy reading and understanding. This approach has been developed and perfected by the author over the course of his tenure as a teacher of organic chemistry. At the end of each chapter, exercises are provided which strengthen the students' understanding of the concepts discussed in the text. 'Challenging Questions' are given for those students who want to delve deeper into the subject. Topics of current interest that are related to the subject matter of the chapter are suggested for preparing project reports.This book represents the hope that students of Indian universities who use it will appreciate that much of organic chemistry can be logically deduced from fundamentals and is amenable to reasonable explanations and deductions.
C N Pillai is a Retired Professor of the Department of Chemistry, IIT, Madras. He obtained his doctorate from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA, and has four decades of experience in teaching and research. He has published over 100 research papers in international journals and contributed chapters in books. He also has four patents to his credit. Notable among the various awards he has received are the Eminent Scientist Award (Catalysis Society of India, 1998) and the Lifetime Achievement Award (Catalysis Society of India, 1997).