Today we met for the first time. We introduced ourseleves and went over the website. We then launched right in to the chemistry of carbon. So what’s so special about carbon? One point that was made is that it has too many electrons to lose them all from its valence shell and not enough to gain them all to end up with the desired octet (8) so it has to share electrons – and does this by making four bonds. There are several ways this can occur – four single bonds, two double bonds, two single bonds and one double bond, one single bond and a triple bond – and all of these strategies are used. There are over 6 million organic compounds that have been identified and over 2 million have been synthesized in an organic laboratory.
We learned that carbon forms chains of atoms – straight chains, branched chains, and even rings. Organic compounds all contain carbon – but what else in in them? Well they typically include hydrogen and in many cases oxygen and/or nitrogen. Organic molecules may even have phosphorus, sulfur or any of the halogens attached to the carbon chains.
We began to talk about functional groups. You need to memorize them and learn to recognize them in molecules. They include the alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, ethers, amines, amides, and others. They are printed on the back cover of the textbook. I found this page:
http://cactus.dixie.edu/smblack/chem1010/lecture_notes/2C.htm
it looks like fun and has some cute pictures.
Please read chapters one and two and PLEASE read the syllabus so you know how to prepare for class – we will continue on Wednesday. See you then.
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