Organic Chemistry

• Branch of chemistry dedicated only to the study of carbon and its compounds is known as organic chemistry.

• Carbon has a unique tendency of catenation. It binds with itself via a series of covalent bonds. This is the basis of organic chemistry.

• The bonds that are formed by sharing electrons are known as covalent bonds.

Characteristics of organic compounds are:

• They are covalent compounds of carbon.

• They can exist in all three states i.e., solid, liquid, and gas.

• They are soluble in organic solvents.

• They are poor conductors of electricity.

Organic compounds can be classified into the following categories.

• Open chain or aliphatic compounds

• Closed chain or cyclic compounds

• Carbocyclic or homocyclic compounds have ring comprising only of carbon atoms.

• Heterocyclic compounds contain other elements besides carbon in the ring.

• Acyclic or open chain compounds consist of straight or branched chain compounds.
• Alicyclic or closed chain or ring compounds contain carbon atoms joined in the form of ring (homocyclic). In some rings (heterocyclic), atoms other than …