Reagents and Organic reactions Lecture Note

Organic chemistry is the branch of chemistry that involves the scientific study of organic compounds (compounds that contain covalently bonded carbon atoms). This branch of chemistry primarily deals with the structure and chemical composition of organic compounds, the physical and chemical properties of organic compounds, and the chemical reactions undergone by these compounds. Advancements in the field of organic chemistry have made numerous contributions to human society, such as the synthesis of several drugs, polymers, and other natural products. Synthetic organic chemistry is an important application of organic chemistry which deals with the design and construction of organic compounds for practical purposes.

The term  ‘organic’ was coined because the field of organic chemistry was initially finite to compounds that were produced by the living organisms. This was attributed to some ‘vital force’ that was present in organic substances as they had something that inanimate substances lacked. The above theory was debunked when Urey Miller synthesized urea from inorganic substances but the classification is still in use.

Organic chemistry is a vast science due to one key property exhibited by the element carbon, which is called carbon catenation. Carbon has the exceptional ability to form very stable bonds with other carbon atoms, giving it the ability to form stable molecules with relatively complex structures. Catenation is the ability of an element to form bonds with an atom of the same kind. Hence, the vastness of organic chemistry can be attributed to the this property of carbon.