20 Examples of Organic Chemistry

The organic chemistry or carbon chemistry deals with the study of organic compounds, which are those that are made up of atoms carbon and hydrogen, often combined with others such as oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, iron, magnesium, chlorine, and others. For example: ethanol, ethylamine, nitroethane.

Organic chemistry pays special attention to the processes of synthesis and degradation of this type of substances, which are those that regulate most vital processes.

The metabolism of carbohydrates or sugars, of the lipids, of the fats, of the protein, nucleic acids, vitamins and hormones, for example, is governed by a complex network of chemical reactions between organic compounds and between compounds organic and inorganic, such as addition reactions, substitution reactions, rearrangement reactions or elimination.

Characteristic reactions in organic chemistry

In addition, there are characteristic reactions in organic chemistry, such as hydrocarbon combustion, the saponification or transesterification of fats, the polymerization of different

molecules, condensation reactions of aromatic compounds, diazotization reactions and many others. Some examples of these reactions are:

Organic chemistry is fully integrated into our daily work and also into many processes in the industry. In the day to day, for example, when making a cake or a pizza, what we are achieving is the fermentation of the carbohydrates contained in the flour: on rising the dough, carbon dioxide is formed, which is what gives the baked products aeration.

The production of medicines, paints and varnishes, pesticides, plastics, preservatives for food, cosmetics, among many others, is based on organic reactions of different types (often quite complex).

Study of organic chemistry

The concept of "organic chemistry" was introduced in 1807 by Berzelius, to refer to the compounds that came from the natural resources. At that time it used to be thought that life-related compounds had a “vital” component that made them different from inorganic ones. Furthermore, it was considered that it was not feasible to prepare a organic compound.

However, in 1828 Friederich Wöhler succeeded in converting lead cyanate to urea by treatment with aqueous ammonia. In this way it was possible to obtain a typically organic product from an inorganic salt. There are already more than ten million organic compounds that man has managed to synthesize and take advantage of.

To facilitate the study of organic chemistry, a large number of organic compounds have been defined that have been identified according to their functional groups as alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, alcohols, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, epoxides, haloalkanes, hydrazones, imides, imines, isocyanates, isonitriles, isothiocyanates, ketones, nitriles, nitroso compounds, organophosphates, oximes, peroxides, phosphonates, pyridine derivatives, sulfones, sulfonates, sulfoxides, thiocyanates and isothiocyanates, thioesters, thioketones, thiols.

Examples of organic chemistry