What’s an organic molecule and what makes carbon oh so cool? Full partial explanation in video, key points below. Sorry I don’t have time to do more today. And sorry dad that this is way more information than you wanted when you asked what distinguishes organic chemistry from general chemistry…
- organic molecules are basically the molecules of life (mostly) – but they’re not really “different” from nonlife molecules – they’re just based on hydrocarbon skeletons, with sprinklings of oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur “heteroatoms” in functional groups
- carbon’s so cool for a number of reasons including…
- it can form up to 4 bonds thanks to its 4 valence electrons
- this allows for chains, branches, rings…
- it’s pretty “generic” electronegativity-wise so it can “play nice” & form strong bonds to things to a lot of things
- because it’s in that middle, it can get swayed to be nucleophilic or electrophilic depending on what its bound to
- it can form up to 4 bonds thanks to its 4 valence electrons
more on atoms, molecules, & bonding: https://bit.ly/molecularintuition & https://youtu.be/uXo8axBmW34
& intermolecular attractions: http://bit.ly/frizzandmolecularattractions
more on Noble gases: http://bit.ly/noblegasprize ; YouTube: https://youtu.be/9ARuYLptWiI
more on coal: http://bit.ly/carbonchemistryfranklin