ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Carbon compounds are especially important because all living things on Earth
are made up of carbon (in addition to a few other elements). Each carbon atom
can form up to four bonds with other atoms; this enables carbon to form long
chains with itself and certain other atoms, which is what makes it such an
important biomolecule. Organic molecules almost always contain nonpolar
covalent bonds. Here are some other properties of organic compounds that you
should know.
• Organic compounds are much more soluble in nonpolar solvents than in
polar solvents. Remember: Like dissolves like, so since carbon compounds
are generally nonpolar, they will be soluble in nonpolar solvents. That
means that organic substances are not very soluble in water, which is a
highly polar solvent.• Organic compounds don’t dissociate in solution; since organic
compounds do not contain ionic bonds, they will not dissociate into ions.
That means that organic solutions are poor conductors of electricity, and
organic compounds do not behave as electrolytes in solution.There is an infinite variety of organic molecules. Sometimes two organic
molecules may have the same chemical make-up with identical constituent
elements, but these elements are arranged in a different geometrical
arrangement. In these cases, the two compounds have completely different
chemical properties and are said to be isomers.
Hydrocarbons
The simplest organic compounds are hydrocarbons, compounds that contain only
carbon and hydrogen. Hydrocarbons can be grouped into three categories:
alkanes, which contain only single carbon-carbon bonds; alkenes, which
contain carbon-carbon double bonds; and alkynes, which contain carbon-carbon
triple bonds.