Introduction to Organic Chemistry
Rholish
This is a branch of chemistry which deals with the study of compounds of carbon and hydrogen and their derivatives. In early days people have no difference between organic and inorganic chemistry. More than 200 years ago early chemists recognized organic compounds distinct from inorganic compound due to the differences in their origin and properties. Organic compounds were considered as those compounds obtained from living things such as plants, animals.
This is a branch of chemistry which deals with the study of compounds of carbon and hydrogen and their derivatives. In early days people have no difference between organic and inorganic chemistry. More than 200 years ago early chemists recognized organic compounds distinct from inorganic compound due to the differences in their origin and properties. Organic compounds were considered as those compounds obtained from living things such as plants, animals. These compounds could never be synthesized from inorganic matertials.This theory is called vital force theory. In 1828 this theory was rejected by Friedrick Wohler when he obtained urea in the urine of mammals from ammonium cynate. After the synthesis of urea million of organic compounds have been prepared and analyzed. The important feature of all these compounds is that they all contain carbon as essential element. Most of them also contain hydrogen. Some of them contain oxygen, nitrogen, sulpher along with carbon and hydrogen. It has been recognized that the chemical forces in organic compounds are similar to those which exist in inorganic compounds. The diversity of organic chemicals is due to the versatility of the carbon atom and its properties.
Now we introduce some properties of carbon atom.
Carbon (C) appears in the fourth group of the periodic table and has four valence electrons in its outermost shell. Similar to other non-metals, carbon needs four electrons to complete its outermost shell which is known as valence shell. Carbon therefore forms four bonds with other atoms. Every valence electrons participates in bonding, thus a carbon atom's bonds will be distributed evenly over the atom's surface. Keep in mind that each carbon atom forms four bonds (single bond, double, tripple.tetra). As the number of bonds between any two carbon atoms increases, the number of hydrogen atoms (there may be another atoms) in the molecule decreases. These bonds form a tetrahedron as shown ion figure.
H
H C H
H