ORGANIC CHEMISTRY BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

What is Organic Chemistry?

Most carbon-containing compounds are organic chemicals and are addressed by the subject of organic chemistry. Organic chemistry is a vast, diverse discipline because of the enormous number of organic compounds that exist as a consequence of the versatile bonding capabilities of carbon.

Such diversity is due to the ability of carbon atoms to bond to each other through single bonds (two shared electrons), double bonds (four shared electrons), and triple bonds (six shared electrons), in a limitless variety of straight chains, branched chains, and rings.

Among organic chemicals are included the majority of important industrial compounds, synthetic polymers, agricultural chemicals, biological materials, and most substances that are of concern because of their toxicities and other hazards.

Pollution of the water, air, and soil environments by organic chemicals is an area of significant concern.

Chemically, most organic compounds can be divided among hydrocarbons, oxygen-containing compounds, nitrogen-containing compounds, sulfur-containing compounds, organohalides, phosphorus- containing compounds, or combinations of these. Each of these classes of organic compounds is discussed briefly here.

All organic compounds, of course, contain carbon. Virtually all also contain hydrogen and have at least one C–H bond.

The simplest organic compounds, and those easiest to understand, are those that contain only hydrogen and carbon.

These compounds are called hydrocarbons and are addressed first among the organic compounds discussed in this chapter. Hydrocarbons are used here to illustrate some of the most fundamental points of organic chemistry, including organic formulas, structures, and names.