Lesson 1: Organic Molecules

• Organic molecules contain carbon, except for oxides of carbon, carbonates, hydrogen carbonates, cyanides, cyanates, and thiocyanates
• Natural organic compounds include fossil fuels, food, wood, paper products, fabrics
• Properties of carbon:

  • Has a bonding capacity of 4
  • Can form single, double, or triple bonds
  • When bonded together, can form shapes like chains, rings, spheres, sheets, tubes
• Alcohols are hydrocarbon derivatives
• Types of organic molecules:

  • Hydrocarbons
  • Amides
  • Aromatics
  • Aliphatics
  • Ethers
  • Aldehydes
  • Alkenes
  • Alkynes
  • Alkanes
  • Alkyl Halides
  • Organic Acids
  • Ketones
  • Amines
  • Esters
• Aliphatics can be saturated (contain only single bonds) or unsaturated (contain at least one double or triple C-C bond)

  • Types of aliphatics include alkanes, alkenes, alkynes
  • For cyclic aliphatics, the prefix cyclo- is used
• Forms of aliphatics:

  1. Straight chain

  2. Branched chain

  3. Cyclic hydrocarbons
• Ways to represent organic compounds:

  • Empirical molecular formula
  • Expanded molecular formula
  • Structural formula
  • Condensed structural formula
  • Line structural formula
• Prefixes for naming organic compounds:

  • meth- (1 carbon)
  • eth- (2 carbons)
  • prop- (3 carbons)
  • but- (4 carbons)
  • pent- (5 carbons)
  • hex- (6 carbons)
  • hept- (7 carbons)
  • oct- (8 carbons)
  • non- (9 carbons)
  • dec- (10 carbons)
• Physical properties of alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes:

  • Boiling and melting points increase with the number of carbons (C10H22 has a higher boiling point than CH4 due to more surface area)
  • Only contain London dispersion forces (nonpolar)
  • Physical state at room temperature depends on the size of the molecule
  • 1-4 carbons = gas
  • 5-16 carbons = liquid
  • 17+ carbons = solid
• Rules for naming alkanes:

  1. Determine the longest continuous chain of carbon atoms

  2. List alkyl groups attached to the main chain alphabetically

  3. Use di-, tri-, tetra- for multiple alkyl groups

  4. Assign numbers to alkyl groups to indicate position

  5. Place a dash between numbers and letters, commas between numbers
• polyatomic ions and ionic compounds are not organic
• cotton is a natural organic molecule
• polyester is a type of fabric that is a synthetic organic molecule
• carbon is the most commonly used atom since it can naturally bond to 4 atoms (maximum bond capacity) and can form any type of bond (single, double, triple)
• due to carbon being able to bond in many different ways, it is versatile
• substituents always end in -yl when naming organic compounds
• Synthetic organic compounds are plastics, soaps, perfumes, cosmetics, fertilizers, pesticides, and fabrics
• Hydrocarbons only contain carbon and hydrogen, but hydrocarbon derivatives include carbon, hydrogen, and also oxygen
• Pencil lead and diamond are made of the same element, but due to different bonds and structures, they look completely different
• Pencil lead is carbon bonds forming a sheet, while diamond is carbon bonds forming a tetrahedron structure