organ 1

• Organic Compounds, their Properties and Reactions
• For this series of lectures, you are advised to


  1. Read around the topics information covered

  2. Use text books or other reliable sources to make supplementary notes to improve your understanding of the subtopics

  3. Information covered is expected to be applied in other modules and Stages of the courses

  4. If you already have a good base of chemistry, then use these lectures as revision sessions
• Topics

  • Structure, Physical and Chemical properties related to Biological and Pharmaceutical uses
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Alcohols/Phenols/Thiols
  • Aldehydes and ketones
  • Carboxylic acids
  • Amines/Amides
  • Amino acids
  • Organohalides
• Hydrocarbons

  • Aliphatic Hydrocarbons (both open-chain, branched and cyclic)
  • Aromatic Hydrocarbons (containing the benzene ring, Arene)
  • Alkanes
  • Ethane
  • Benzene (and its derivatives)
  • Benzene Polynuclear
  • Naphthalene
  • Alkenes
  • Ethene
  • Alkynes
  • Ethyne
• Saturated

  Hydrocarbons with only single bonds
• Unsaturated

  Hydrocarbons with double or triple bonds
• Hydrocarbons

  • The hydrocarbon chains can interact via very subtle molecular interactions known as van der Waals forces
  • These may be viewed as a slight induced shift in the electron distribution within covalent bonds between molecules as they 'stack together'
• Apolar


  Structures that contain considerable hydrocarbon features will be apolar and are likely to be fairly insoluble in water, but soluble in apolar solvents (like dissolves like)
• Structural representations of hydrocarbons

  • Line (skeletal) formalism
  • Condensed formalism
  • Lewis structural formalism
  • 'Expanded' formalism
• Alkyl substituted compounds with more hydrocarbon character are less water soluble
• Alkenes

  • Unsaturation occurs in hydrocarbons as double bonds, triple bonds or benzene (aromatic) rings
  • Hydrocarbons with double bonds are called alkenes
• Pi bond

  The C=C bond has an extra bond above and beyond that of the alkane and hence is not capable of rotating freely (hence Geometric isomerism)
• Sigma bond

  Provides the first covalent bond of the C=C bond
• Hydrocarbons undergo

  1. Combustion

  2. Halogenation
• Free radical halogenation

  Alkanes undergo substitution reactions with the halogens, forming halogenated hydrocarbons
• Alkenes can

  1. Burn

  2. Undergo addition reactions with X2 or HX (X = Cl and Br), H2, H2SO4 and H2O across the C=C double bond
• Markovnikov's rule

  In additions of HX to asymmetrical alkenes, the H+ of HX goes to the double bonded carbon that already has the greatest number of hydrogens
• Addition of X2, (X = Br or Cl)

  Halogenation of alkenes
• Nucleophile

  Propyl hydrogen sulphates
• Hydration of alkenes

  Addition of HOH across a double bond
• Catalyst

  The acid component does not appear in the final products and therefore it must be acting as a facilitating agent
• Oxidation of alkenes

  1. Without cleavage e.g. cold KMnO4(aq)

  2. With cleavage e.g hot KMnO4 or ozone (O3)
• Baeyer test

  Solution turns from purple to brown
• Alkanes are inert to oxidising reagents
• Alkenes can be reduced

  By hydrogen in presence of Pd catalyst
• Alkene polymerisation


  nCH2=CH2 -> [-CH2CH2-]n
• A student would be expected to learn: