ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

                                                                  CARBON

The term Organic Chemistry originally meant the chemistry of compounds obtainable from plants and animals living organisms. The reason for this belief was because they believed that to produce organic compounds you needed a vital force.

THE NATURE OF CARBON

It is easy to explain the unique of carbon which has resulted in giving it a chemistry all to its own among the 100 odd elements in the periodic table.

1.     The valency of carbon. Carbon has the following configuration:

1s²      2s¹     2px¹     2py1     2pz¹

2.     The second principal quantity number of carbon has no d orbital. Thus when carbon has formed four bonds, there are no other orbital available for bonding.

3.     The bond between carbon and hydrogen is almost non-polar. Thus, hydrogen atoms attached to carbon do not weaken carbon-carbon bonds.

4.     The types of orbital hybridization available to the carbon. There are three types of hybribization open to carbon namely sp3, sp2, sp hybridization. These give give rise to a variety of neutral compounds having single, double and triple bonds.

5.     Delocalisation . this occurs in carbon compounds than in any compounds of any other elements. This phenomenon assures that six membered ring carbon compound with delocalized orbitals are particularly stable.

SHARE ON: