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( Organic compound)
An organic compound is any member of a large class of chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of compounds such as carbonates, simple oxides of carbon and cyanides, as well as the allotropes of carbon, are considered inorganic. The division between "organic" and "inorganic" carbon compounds while "useful in organizing the vast subject of chemistry...is somewhat arbitrary"[1]. The name "organic" is historical, dating back to the 19th century, when it was believed that organic compounds could only be synthesized in living organisms through vis vitalis - the "life-force". The theory that organic compounds were fundamentally different from those that were "inorganic", that is, not synthesized through a life-force, was disproved with the synthesis of urea, an "organic" compound by definition of its known occurrence only in the urine of living organisms, from potassium cyanate and ammonium sulfate by Friedrich Wöhler in the Wöhler synthesis. The kinds of carbon compounds that are still traditionally considered inorganic are those that were considered inorganic before Wöhler's time; that is, those which came from "inorganic" (i.e., lifeless) sources such as minerals.[1] Organic compounds may be classified in a variety of ways. One major distinction is between natural and synthetic compounds. They may also be distinguished by the presence of additional atoms of further elements, so-called heteroatoms. Organometallic compounds constitute a further subsection, characterized by covalent bonds between organic carbon and a metal. There is also a large number of inorganic carbon compounds to distinguish from organic compounds.
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