Introduction
to
Organic Chemistry
WHAT IS ORGANIC CHEMISTRY?
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY INVOLVES THE STUDY OF THE
STRUCTURES, PROPERTIES, COMPOSITION, REACTIONS AND
PREPARATIONS( BY SYNTHESIS OR OTHER MEANS) OF
CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS CONSISTING PRIMARILY OF CARBON
AND HYDROGEN (HYDROCARBON), WHICH MAY CONTAIN
ANY OTHER ELEMENTS (DERIVATIVES OF HYDROCARBON)
INCLUDING NITROGEN, OXYGEN, HALOGEN.
Historical Development of
Organic Chemistry
Ancient medicines
Jesus turning water into wine
Soap from animal fat
Extracts of plants and animals into dyes, perfumes, make-up, inks and fibers woven to clothes
The main sources of organic compounds are
living matter and they were all found to
contain the elements carbon and hydrogen.
Investigation revealed that during burning
they produced carbon dioxide and water
substances. The Vital Force Theory states
that organic compounds could be
manufactured only by and within living
matter and that they could never be
synthesized from inorganic materials was
very popular then.
Torben Bergman (1770) first to make
distinction between organic and inorganic
chemistry
Friedrich Wohler, 1828
Synthesis Urea from ammonium cyanate
Carl Scheele
Purified various plants acids such as citric, tartaric, succinic,
Lactic, and malic acid and characterized their salts
Pierre-Joseph Pelletier and
Joseph Bienaime Caventou, 1818-1820
Identified the alkaloids strychnine and quinine
from plants
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
Showed that organic compd produces CO2 and H2O during
Combustion; carried the first elemental analysis or organic compd
Joseph Louis Gay- Lussac and
Jons Jacob Berzelius, 1810-1815
Developed Lavoisier combustion method
of Organic analysis
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Jons Jacob Berzelius
Justus von Liebig, 1831
Created a faster, extraordinary , accurate and comfortable
method of organic analysis
Jean- Baptiste-Andre Dumas, 1826-1833
Developed a precise method to determine vapor densities
Of organic compds and improved way to measure their
nitrogen content; developed new theories of organic
composition
Jons Jacob Berzelius
Named the concept of polymerism and isomerism;
Regarded electrostatic attraction as the force that held the
pieces of molecules together.
August Kekule, 1857-1858
Developed the theory of chemical structure. According to
him C atom can bond together to form a C skeleton that
constitutes the framework of the molecule
Emil Fisher
Organized an effective investigation of the Chemistry of
sugars and proteins
Adolf von Baeyer
Explored complex natural products such as dye molecules
and terpenes
Linus Pauling
Give the resonance interpretation of the benzene ring
Which provided the first truly static factory understanding
of aromatic chemistry.
20th
century
- stereochemistry, development of
synthetic methods, structure
determinations, synthesis of important
natural products and articulations of
theories of composition matured
1930’s onward
- instruments developed because of the
revolution of analytical chemistry (UV-VIS,
IR, pH meter, mass spectrophotometer,
GC, NMR, GC-NMR, electron spin
resonance, x-ray diffraction)
“
Much of the interesting work
being done today in organic
chemistry still happens in
reaction flasks and beakers.
There is still art in this work.”
The current major advances in Organic
Chemistry technology concerns the synthesis
of (1) novel polymers for highly specific uses,
(2) drugs initially "designed" by molecular
modeling & synthesized by combinatorial
methods. (3) Rare or complex biologically
important compounds (such as proteins and
genes) & (4) the development of synthetic
processes which exploit the versatility and
specificity of isolated and purified enzymes
("enzymes as reagents"). This is so-called
"green chemistry" and attempts to produce
commodity chemicals in ways that are far less
harmful to the environment than previously
done. Thus, even to be a biochemist, one has
to be an organic chemist first!
Importance of Organic Chemistry
1. Medicines are another important factor
in the health and well-being of man.
Specific examples of medicine are
common antibiotics like penicillin
(C16H17N2O4SNa)
and
streptomycin
(C12H39N7O12). These are widely used in
the treatment of communicable diseases
like tuberculosis, pneumonia, venereal
diseases and other infections.
2. Organic chemicals have been responsible for the
rapid increase in food production to meet the
demands of an expanding world population. The
two famous substances that generally /greatly
helped in these developments were the insecticide
DDT( C14H9Cl5, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane)
and the herbicides 2,4-D (C8H6Cl2O3). But DDT
have been discovered to have an adverse ecological
effects. Therefore, it is now important to discover
insecticides which would surpass the effectiveness
of DDT and be reasonably biodegradable (organic
matter degraded or decomposed by aerobic
bacteria in conjunction with other aerobic
organisms) so that they do not accumulate and
poison the ecosystem.
3. Considering the various and confusing
contribution of organic chemistry as a science,
a study of this subject helps one in solving
problems systematically by digging into their
causes and reasons to be able to find best
solutions. Learning and organizing abilities will
be developed to be able to relate and interpret
proper information. Furthermore, it could
enhance or increase imaginative thinking and
develop critical outlook in man to be able to
come up with sound conclusions from the
gathered evidenced or data. As a whole, it
could help in the development of the
wholesomeness of the person.
Are all carbon containing
compounds organic?
No. Not all carbon containing compound
are organic. Carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide,
cyanide,
carbonates,
bicarbonates are examples. Note that
these exceptions do not contain
hydrogen to the carbon atom, the basic
requirement for the classification of
organic compounds.