Chapter 16

Organic Chemistry

Organic chemistry is the study of compounds containing the element carbon. This covers a wide
range of compounds including proteins, alcohols, steroids, sugars, and compounds found in
petroleum, just to name a few. The reason we can study them as facets of one subject is because of
the unifying way we can look at them through the bonding properties of carbon.

Carbon has four valence electrons and thus would like to have four more to complete its octet.
Because of its moderate electronegativity, it tends to form covalent rather than ionic bonds. See
chapter 5 , which discusses Bonding and Molecular Structure, for discussions of hybridization, σ
(sigma) and π (pi) orbitals, et cetera.

BASIC CONCEPT

Organic chemistry   is  the study   of  compounds   containing  carbon.

sp^3 Hybridized

The carbon atom forms four single (σ) bonds. According to VSEPR theory, the four bonds would be
directed toward the corners of a tetrahedron, with a bond angle of 109.5° between any two. Despite
this geometry, it is often drawn simply as a Lewis structure with the four bonds directed toward the
corners of a two-dimensional diamond. It is important to realize that this Lewis structure does not
give the right three-dimensional structure but only a conventional shorthand.

Hydrocarbons

Oxygen-Containing   Compounds

Amino   Acids