Organic Chemistry

The branch of chemistry that is concerned with compounds of carbon. Therefore this deals with living matter, oil products, plastics etc etc. Because of the extraordinary bonding properties of carbon there are many more organic compounds than inorganic compounds

Until the early 1800's chemical substances relating to living matter were called "organic" materials and were considered fundamentally different to other substances, mainly of mineral based, which were called inorganic substances.It was considered a "vital force" was necessary to form living (organic) matter.In 1828 this theory was discredited by Wohler but the term organic has remained.

Most organic substances contain Hydrogen(H) and Carbon(C) and many contain Oxygen(O), Nitrogen, Sulphur (S), Phosphorous (P)and the Halogens Flourine(F), Bromine(Br), Chlorine(Cl) and Iodine(I). These and other elements are normally bonded to carbon by covalent bonds as opposed to ionic bonds which are typical of inorganic compounds.

The covalent bonds which are relatively weak compared to the ionic bond. Therefore organic compounds typically have low critical temperatures...

The Pauling electronegativity value for carbon of 2,5 is approximately in the middle of the scale (0,8 to 4,0)covered by all elements.ref electronegativity values )This number provides a measure of the bonding characteristic.Carbon being in the middle of the range will for the majority of cases combine with other elements with covalent bonds.In these bonds the electrons will not be attracted to of from either or the bonded atoms to any great extent.

Organic Chemistry Families
The total field of organic chemistry is so large that it is necessary to break it down into sub-groups or families of compounds .
Some of these "families are identified below-with links to relevant notes


Alkanes(all single bonds)
Alkyl Halides(involving at least one halogen bonded to a carbon)
Alkenes(one or more Carbon - Carbon double bond
Alkynes(one or more Carbon- Carbon triple bond)
Aromatic Compounds(involving the molecule Benzene, Napthalene, Anthracene, etc)
Alcohols(one or more OH group)
Thiols(similar to alcohols except Sulfur (SH) instead of Oxygen
Ethers(one or more Oxygen single bonded to two carbons)
Thioethers(similar to ethers except a Sulfur atom in place of an Oxygen atom)
Aldehydes(one or more formyl group -CH=O)
Ketones(one or more keto group C=O)
Carboxylic Acids(at least one carboxyl group -COOH)
Esters( Formed by reactions with acids and alcohols)
Amines(one or more Nitrogen bonded to Hydrogen or carbon atoms)
Amino Acids(one or more amino group NH2and one carboxyl group -COOH)
Carbohydrates( several OH groups and a formyl or keto group)
Organometallics(with ionic bonding between a metal and a carbon structure)