Introduction to Organic Chemistry

Carbon is in Group 4 of the periodic table, signifying that it has four valence electrons, which it uses to typically form four covalent bonds with other carbon atoms or heteroatoms. This gives rise to the possibility of various organic molecular structures. These may be simple hydrocarbons, such as alkanes and alkenes, formed from chains of carbon atoms, or the formation of carbon ring structures. Where bonding to heteroatoms is involved, characteristic functional groups are formed, which have their own distinctive reactivity. Sometimes, organic molecules may contain the same number of each type of atom, and yet be entirely different molecules. These are called isomers. Analytical techniques exist that can be used to isolate and characterise organic molecules and thus distinguish between the huge variety of organic molecules that might be present in a reaction mixture or a natural product.