Organic chemistry

Organic chemistry is the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and synthesis of organic compounds that by definition contain carbon. It is a specific discipline within the subject of chemistry. Organic compounds are molecules composed of carbon and hydrogen, and may contain any number of other elements. Many organic compounds contain nitrogen, oxygen, halogens, and more rarely phosphorus or sulphur.

Molecular structure of an organic compound

Compounds are generally made from the building blocks of carbon atoms, hydrogen atoms, and functional groups. The valence of carbon is 4, and hydrogen is 1, functional groups are generally 1. Many, but not all structures can be envisioned by the simple valence rule that there will be one bond for each valence number.

Related Topics:
Functional groups - Valence

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Currently, there exist several methods for deducing the structure an organic compound. In general usage are (in alphabetical order):

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Crystallography: This is the most precise method; however, it is very difficult to grow crystals of sufficient size and high quality to get a clear picture, so it remains a secondary form of analysis.
• Elemental Analysis: A destructive method used to determine the elemental composition of a molecule.
• Infrared spectroscopy: Chiefly used to determine the presence (or absence) of certain functional groups.
• Mass spectrometry: Used to determine the molecular weight of a compound and the fragmentation pattern.
• Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry
• UV/VIS spectroscopy: Used to determine degree of conjugation in the system

See Analytical chemistry for additional methods.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~