The Main Types of Organic Reactions

Figure 2.1(A) shows raw fruit. The crisp, sharp-tasting fruit becomes soft and sweet when it is cooked. Figure 2.1(B) shows a chemist accelerating the tranformation of ethanol into ethanoic acid, by adding potassiumdichromate and sulfuric acid.What do these reactions have in common? They are both examples of organic reactions. In this section, you will take […]

Making and Breaking Macromolecules

Large molecules can be broken down to release energy. Alternatively, they can be formed to build cellular structures or store information. In biological systems there are four major types of chemical reactions involved in breaking apart andbuilding molecules: acid-base or neutralization reactions, which transfer hydrogen ions between molecules, redox, or oxidation-reduction reactions, which transfer electrons […]