Introduction to Organic Chemistry - Essay Example

Carbon, the element used for most radioactive dating, contains specific properties that help it be one of the building blocks of life. There are various groups and arrangements of the element carbon, all with different properties and structures. 

Carbon is often a key player in making organic compounds and understanding these compounds is important to a key understanding of organic chemistry. It is these compounds that are the basis for the reactions and changes that undergo organic chemical reactions and processes. These processes form the basic makeup of our life-giving process. Ranging from many chain carbons to single chain carbons, carbon can form chains which can then react and make up various other processes in the world around them. From hydrocarbons to their various functional groups, all of these carbon chains are important to our understanding of the chemical world around us.

Important to all life around it, carbon is a versatile and changing element. To properly understand life and its reactions and processes, we must understand carbon, and its unique role in the functions of organic compounds, organic reactions, and on a broader scale, the very basis of organic chemistry.


Body:

Organic chemistry is the chemistry of the element carbon, but also includes other elements such as nitrogen and oxygen. While it was originally believed to be the basis for all life, carbon was originally believed to be the only thing running life processes. It is now known, however, that life also relies on other elements and functions. However that is not to say that carbon is not important to live it is the exact opposite, almost all life processes are somehow related to or based on carbon or a carbon chair somewhere

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Chemistry).

            Carbon is found in many different forms, and its unique ability to form carbon chains leads to its many different qualities and applications. Carbon is used in various products, ranging from “paints, plastics, food, explosives, drugs and even petrochemicals”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Chemistry). Without these versatile chains of carbon, the processes of life would be left out to dry.

            Organic chemistry was originally given the backburner as well. First thought to be too difficult to study, the processes of living organisms were simply named “organic”, and then left be (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Chemistry). However, as time progressed and more scientists debunked this difficulty factor, the study and investigation of the different functions of organic chemistry began to evolve. Biochemistry, a relatively new area of organic chemistry, is also expanding, leading to new studies in the realms of organic chemistry.

Individual compounds inside of organic chemistry are described according to their formula and arrangements of carbon. As naming all of these new compounds and structural arrangements became a large and demanding task, the job was given to the International Union on Pure and Applied Chemistry, or IUPAC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Chemistry).

The first group of classification is the hydrocarbon group, the group containing compounds that only have one carbon and hydrogen. Different functional groups, made up of different elements, may attach to these hydrocarbon groups, and change the properties of the original molecule.

Two different categories of these compounds also exist, The Aliphatic compounds and the cyclic compounds. The Aliphatic compounds can then be separated by how they saturate, as well as the types of bonds included in the compound. Cyclic compounds can be saturated or unsaturated as well, and can also be separated by the presence of a lack of double bonds within the molecule/

Polymers are another important part of Organic Chemistry. One of the unique features of carbon is its ability to chain, and this can be used to form polymers. Through the process of polymerization, these polymers can be made. Silicon is the only other element that can make polymers, although silicon chain polymers have different properties(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Chemistry).

Some other features of organic compounds include how they are usually covalently bonded, which leads to the formation of carbon rings, they also can change phases are much lower temperatures than non-organic compounds.

Conclusion:

While it may no longer be a big mystery, and simply thought of as too difficult to understand, carbon and its feature to build rings may be one of the most important elements of them all. Its unique contributions to organic chemistry help us understand life, and how its works around us.

Without carbon, many things in life would be not working. Processes would be shut down, and we would not have organic reactions necessary to life at all. It is possible that life could be based on silicon instead of carbon, and many people think it may be the basis of life on other planets.

The study of carbon is only expanding, with the field of organic chemistry evolving to include the rapidly changing field of biochemistry; the exploration of life around us is still in motion. We know a lot more than our fathers and grandfathers did about carbon, but there are still ways to go in understanding this building block of earthly life.  What once may have been thought of as too difficult to understand by human means, and to have a magical life force not understandable by humans, we now know carbon as simply another element. Read More