Welcome to organic chemistry. Hopefully, you will use this course to gain a better understanding of the world around you.
Perhaps without knowing it, you are already a bit familiar with organic compounds. Look around the room. Can you identify the organic compounds and mixtures that surround you?
Actually, people have
been isolating, utilizing and even producing organic compounds for thousands of
years.
Here
are some of the organic compounds that have been known since ancient times.
Sugars
(mono- and disaccharides)
Olive
oil (a mixture of triacylglycerols)
Vinegar
(acetic acid)
Grain alcohol (ethanol)
Question: At a glance, what do these materials have in common? (two of these are correct)
In the 1700s, many organic compounds were isolated from natural sources by Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
Glycerol from animal fats
Citric acid from lemons
Lactic acid from sour milk
Tartaric acid from grapes
The
compositions and structures of these substances were not known, but their
physical properties differed from the many inorganic compounds isolated from the
mineral world. (Torbern
Bergman expressed a distinction between “organic” and “inorganic”
compounds in 1770.)
Organic
compounds were found to boil and melt at lower temperatures than inorganic
compounds.
Organic compounds were found to decompose at lower temperatures than inorganic compounds.
Question: Which compound will burn more easily in a hot frying pan, table sugar or table salt?
Clearly, we need a definition. What does it mean to be organic? Click on the correct answer to the following question.
Question: An organic compound is: (pick one)
(a) A natural substance used for, or produced by organic farming techniques.