• What is organic chemistry?
• Origin of organic chemistry
• Classification of organic compounds
• Organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry
• Examples of organic chemistry

We explain what organic chemistry is, its origin and relationship with inorganic chemistry. In addition, classification of organic compounds.

Organic matter is made up mainly of carbon and hydrogen.

What is organic chemistry?

Organic chemistry (also called carbon chemistry) is the study of the substances Y compounds of an organic type, which means that they have as a combinatorial basis of their atomic structure the elements carbon, hydrogen and some others like sulfur and oxygen. In addition, organic compounds constitute the different forms of living beings in our planet.

In this sense, organic chemistry as a field of study is interested in the structure, behavior, properties and uses of this type of chemical compounds. Therefore, it is essential to understand how life works and the various energy and industrial processes that have developed the human species throughout your history.

For the chemistry In modern times, the elements that make up organic compounds are those that usually appear in living organisms and their derived compounds, such as carbon (C), hydrogen (H), sulfur (S), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N) and all halogen elements.

Although the elements mentioned are the most frequent, organic substances can also be composed of other elements, both organic What inorganic.

Origin of organic chemistry

Antibiotics were developed in the 20th century using organic chemistry and medicine.

The origin of the name "organic chemistry" comes from certain scientific theories that were in vogue until the mid-nineteenth century, and which proposed that organic compounds were, necessarily, remains or residues of ancient living beings. Therefore, they argued that all organic matter came from their bodies.

However, in 1828 the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler realized that inorganic substances such as ammonium cyanate (CH4N2O) could be converted, through certain chemical processes, into an organic substance such as urea, which is part of the urine of many animals, for example.

Wöhler obtained the first evidence that organic and inorganic matter could have a common origin, not necessarily related to the life.

Organic chemistry began to be a fundamental branch of modern chemistry in the twentieth century, when new methods of research arose thanks to the technology. In this way, it was possible to better understand the processes of organic compounds. In this, the biology and medicine.

Classification of organic compounds

Organic compounds are roughly classified as follows:

Depending on the way they are produced or synthesized:

• Natural compounds. They are synthesized both by living organisms and by natural processes. In either of the two variants, the human being does not intervene to synthesize them. For example: protein, lipids Y nucleic acids can be synthesized by living organisms, while the Petroleum it can occur as a result of geological processes that take thousands of years.
• Synthetic compounds. They are artificially synthesized by humans in chemical laboratories. For example: drugs, dyes, plastics, among other products.

According to the type of structure:

• Aromatic hydrocarbons. They are cyclic organic compounds (ring-shaped) that have the peculiarity in their structure of alternating a single bond with a multiple bond, generally a double bond. The fact that the links alternate causes a relocation of the electrons on the ring, which gives great stability to this type of structure. Most are derived from benzene. For example:
  
• Aliphatic hydrocarbons. Are hydrocarbons they do not have aromatic character. They can be linear or cyclical. For example:
  
• Organometallic compounds. They are organic compounds made up of atoms carbon covalently linked to one or more atoms of an element metal. For example:
  

According to the functional groups they have (-OH, O = C, -NH2, among others):

• Alkanes, alkenes and alkynes. They are hydrocarbons that contain structures based on carbon and hydrogen, although they can also have other bonded atoms. In alkanes the carbon atoms are linked by single bonds, in alkenes by double bonds and in alkynes by triple bonds. For example:
  
• Alcohols. They are hydrocarbons that have a hydrogen substituted by a hydroxyl group (-OH). If several hydroxyl groups replace several hydrogens, they are called polyalcohols. For example:
  
• Ketones They are organic compounds that have in their structure a carbonyl group (O = C =) linked to two carbon atoms. For example:
  
• Aldehydes They are organic compounds that have in their structure a carbonyl group (O = C =) linked to a hydrogen atom and a carbon atom. For example:
  
• Carboxylic acids. They are organic compounds that have a carboxyl group (-COOH) in their structure. For example:
  
• Amines They are organic compounds whose structure comes from substituting one or more hydrogens of the molecule of ammonia (NH3), by certain substituents. For example:
  

According to its size or molecular weight:

• Monomers They are molecular units that are linked by chemical links to form macromolecules called polymers. For example: glucose.
• Polymers. They are macromolecules made up of smaller molecular units called monomers. For example: cellulose.
  

Organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry

The essential difference between organic and inorganic chemistry has to do with the type of compounds in which they are interested.Organic chemistry studies compounds whose structure is based on carbon and hydrogen as main components.

In contrast, inorganic chemistry deals equally with the rest of the chemical elements, capable of being part of the substances that sustain life, but not as fundamental and primordial elements. Therefore, there are inorganic compounds They contain carbon and hydrogen, but there are no organic compounds without carbon.

Thus, inorganic chemistry explores mostly the compounds formed by bonds that involve electrostatic interactions, as well as metallic compounds, which are mostly good conductors of the heat and the electricity. Instead, organic chemistry studies compounds formed by covalent bonds, which are bonds formed when electrons from the last energy levels of atoms are shared.

Examples of organic chemistry

Soap is made from animal and vegetable fats.

Organic chemistry is very present in our day to day in chemical processes, both natural and artificial:

• The manufacture of soap. It is produced through the process called "saponification", from the use of fats animals and vegetables.
• The fermentation Y distillation of sugars. It is carried out by microorganisms, to get alcohols. With them, the human being manufactures beverages, solvents and various products.
• The synthesis of starches. It is the process carried out by plants during his photosynthesis, and that serves to store carbohydrates in cottons and other similar materials, also usable by humans.
• The petrochemical industry. From oil, polymer chains are obtained that are used to make substances as different as plastic, gasoline, benzene, etc.
• The creation of antibiotics. Some mushrooms secrete these compounds capable of killing certain types of bacteria. In addition, there are antibiotics or that are synthesized in laboratories.