4 - 22 Introduction to organic chemistry
● ***Organic compound: any carbon compound (except CO2, CO, CO3)
● Can exist as chains, branched chains, rings of carbon atoms with hydrogens
attached (organic compounds with ONLY hydrogen and carbon atoms present are
called hydrocarbons)
Hydrocarbons
● Simplest organic compounds
● ***Definition: compounds containing carbon and hydrogen only
● Carbon atoms joined together with single/double/triple bonds, carbon atoms joined
to hydrogen atoms by single bonds
General formulae
● ***Homologous (同源) series: series of compounds with similar chemical properties
and same functional group/general formula, each member differs by CH2 (within
hydrocarbons in GCSE level)
● E.g.: alkanes (烷烴), alkenes (烯烴), alcohols (醇), carboxylic acids (羧酸),
esters (酯)
● Members of homologous series can be represented by general formula, ***e.g.:
- Alkanes - CnH(2n+2)
- Alkenes - CnH2n
- (Alkynes - CnH(2n-2))
- Alcohols - CnH(2n+2)O
- Carboxylic acids - C(n-1)H(2n-1)COOH
● ***Functional group (功能群): an atom/a group of atoms determining chemical
properties of compound
1
● ***Organic compound: any carbon compound (except CO2, CO, CO3)
● Can exist as chains, branched chains, rings of carbon atoms with hydrogens
attached (organic compounds with ONLY hydrogen and carbon atoms present are
called hydrocarbons)
Hydrocarbons
● Simplest organic compounds
● ***Definition: compounds containing carbon and hydrogen only
● Carbon atoms joined together with single/double/triple bonds, carbon atoms joined
to hydrogen atoms by single bonds
General formulae
● ***Homologous (同源) series: series of compounds with similar chemical properties
and same functional group/general formula, each member differs by CH2 (within
hydrocarbons in GCSE level)
● E.g.: alkanes (烷烴), alkenes (烯烴), alcohols (醇), carboxylic acids (羧酸),
esters (酯)
● Members of homologous series can be represented by general formula, ***e.g.:
- Alkanes - CnH(2n+2)
- Alkenes - CnH2n
- (Alkynes - CnH(2n-2))
- Alcohols - CnH(2n+2)O
- Carboxylic acids - C(n-1)H(2n-1)COOH
● ***Functional group (功能群): an atom/a group of atoms determining chemical
properties of compound
1