Chapter 2 Fundamental of Organic Structures

In this chapter we will talk about the fundamental structural features of organic compounds, the categorization and drawing of organic structures, functional groups and nomenclatures.

Organic Compounds Overview

Organic compounds are compounds that contain the carbon element. The simplest organic compound is a hydrocarbon, which is a compound containing only the elements carbon and hydrogen. Hydrocarbons are composed of several sub-categories: alkane, alkene, alkyne and aromatic, depending on the type of carbon-carbon bonds involved.

Hydrocarbons can be in chains (straight-chain or branched-chain) or rings. The hydrocarbon chain and ring form the “carbon backbone” of organic compounds, and functional groups connected to the backbone provide the great diversity organic structures. Functional groups are common and specific arrangements of atoms, usually heteroatoms (atoms other than carbon and hydrogen) like N, O, Cl, that show specific and relatively high reactivities. Knowledge about the common functional groups in this Chapter will prepare us for the discussions of organic reactions later.

Hydrocarbons:

• Alkane and cycloalkane: contains only C-C (single) bonds
• Alkene and cycloalkene: contains one or more C=C (double) bonds
• Alkyne: contains one or more C≡C (triple) bonds
• Aromatic: contains benzene ring and its derivative

Functional Groups involving heteroatoms (see details in Table 2.2, section 2.3):

• Alkyl halides (haloalkanes), alcohol, ether, nitrile, nitro, amine, aldehyde, ketone, carboxylic acid, ester, amide, anhydride