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 […]
Functional Groups with the C_O Bond
Some of the most interesting and useful organic compounds belong to families you are about to encounter. For example, the sweet taste ofvanilla and the spicy scent of cinnamon have something in common: a carbonyl group. A carbonyl group is composed of a carbon atom doublebonded to an oxygen atom. In this section, you will […]
Single-Bonded Functional Groups
When you cut yourself, it is often a good idea to swab the cut with rubbing alcohol to disinfect it. Most rubbing alcohols that are sold in drugstores are based on 2-propanol (common name: isopropanol), C3H8O. You can also swab a cut with a rubbing alcohol based on ethanol, C2H6O. Often it is hard to […]
Hydrocarbons
In this section, you will review the structure and names of hydrocarbons. As you may recall from your previous chemistry studies, hydrocarbons are the simplest type of organic compound. Hydrocarbons are composedentirely of carbon and hydrogen atoms, and are widely used as fuels. Gasoline, propane, and natural gas are common examples of hydrocarbons. Because they […]
Bonding and the Shape of Organic Molecules
Early scientists defined organic compounds as compounds that originate from living things. In 1828, however, the German chemist Friedrich Wohler (1800–1882) made an organic compound called urea, CO(NH2)2, out of aninorganic compound called ammonium cyanate, NH4CN. Urea is found in the urine of mammals. This was the first time in history that a compound normally […]