Category: Organic compounds

  • Carbon bonding

    The carbon atom is unique among elements in its tendency to form extensive networks of covalent bonds not only with other elements but also with itself. Because of its position midway in the second horizontal row of the periodic table, carbon is neither an electropositive nor an electronegative element; it therefore is more likely to share…

  • Historical developments

    When chemistry took on many of the characteristics of a rational science at the end of the 18th century, there was general agreement that experiment could reveal the laws that governed the chemistry of inanimate, inorganic compounds. The compounds that could be isolated from living organic entities, however, appeared to have compositions and properties entirely different from…

  • organic compound

    Organic compound, any of a large class of chemical compounds in which one or more atoms of carbon are covalently linked to atoms of other elements, most commonly hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen. The few carbon-containing compounds not classified as organic include carbides, carbonates, and cyanides. In general, organic compounds are substances that contain carbon (C), and carbon atoms provide the key structural framework that generates the vast diversity of organic compounds.…

  • Examples

    Some common examples of organic compounds include sugar, starch, cellulose, oil, carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, hormones, and DNA. Organic compounds are an important topic in chemistry, and they are studied in many different fields, including biology, medicine, and materials science.

  • Definition

    organic compound, any of a large class of chemical compounds in which one or more atoms of carbon are covalently linked to atoms of other elements, most commonly hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen.

  • Introduction

    An organic compound is defined as any compound whose molecules contain carbon and hydrogen ( also known as ” hydrocarbons” ) or compound that is the derivative of it.