Introduction to Chemistry

INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
By: Mr Olugbodi, O.G

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Organic chemistry is the study of the chemistry of carbon compounds. Carbon is singled out because it has a chemical diversity unrivaled by any other chemical element. Its diversity is based on the following:
Carbon atoms bond reasonably strongly with other carbon atoms.

• Carbon atoms bond reasonably strongly with atoms of other elements.

• Carbon atoms make a large number of covalent bonds (four).

Curiously, elemental carbon is not particularly abundant. It does not even appear in the list of the most common elements in Earth’s crust.  Nevertheless, all living things consist of organic compounds.

By convention, compounds containing carbonate ions and bicarbonate ions, as well as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, are not considered part of organic chemistry, even though they contain carbon.

The simplest organic compounds are the hydrocarbons, compounds composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms only. Some hydrocarbons have only single bonds and appear as a chain (which can be a straight chain or can have branches) of carbon atoms also bonded to hydrogen atoms. These hydrocarbons are called alkanes (saturated hydrocarbons). Each alkane has a characteristic, systematic name depending on the number of carbon atoms in the molecule.

These names consist of a stem that indicates the number of carbon atoms in the chain plus the ending –ane. The stem meth– means one carbon atom, so methane is an alkane with one carbon atom. Similarly, the stem eth– means two carbon atoms; ethane is an alkane with two carbon atoms.

​S/N	​Number	​Name
​1	​1 Carbon	​Meth - ane
2​	2 Carbon​	Eth​ - ane
3​	3 Carbon	Prop​ - ane
4​	​4 Carbon	But​ - ane
5​	​5 Carbon	Pent​ - ane

Alkene

Some hydrocarbons have one or more carbon–carbon double bonds (denoted C=C). These hydrocarbons are called alkene.
Note that the names of alkenes have the same stem as the alkane with the same number of carbon atoms in its chain but have the ending –ene. Thus, ethene is an alkene with two carbon atoms per molecule, and propene is a compound with three carbon atoms and one double bond.