Introduction to Organic

Chemistry
Pre-University Chemistry CAPE Unit 2
Mrs. C. Williams-Massey
MBCC Westmoreland Campus

My Philosophies
My philosophy on education is that it must be
practical and learning should be fun.
My philosophy on life is that you should always
do your best- the rest will work itself out.
Tenets of my philosophy on life: (i) put God first
in everything that you do (ii) hard work pays (iii)
having good manners and a good reputation goes
a far way and (iv) now is the time to do your best.

Classroom Norms
1. Always be on time.
2. Always be respectful- respect yourself and
respect others.
3. Listen first and ask questions in a polite
manner.
4. Obey all rules as stipulated in the code of
conduct and also in the Student Handbook.

Who are you?

What are your philosophies on life and on
education?
What are your goals and expectations?
Are you satisfied with your CSEC/CAPE grades
from the previous academic year?
What do you think you can do better this school
year to improve your passes?

Learning Style
What is your learning style?
VARK: Visual, Auditory, Read/write and
Kinesthetic/tactile, multimodality.
Learning styles:
http://vark-learn.com/introduction-tovark/the-vark-modalities/

Chemistry Resources
Chemistry for CAPE by Susan Maraj and Arnold Samai. Publisher:
Caribbean Educational Publishers CEP.
A- Level Chemistry by E. N. Ramsden, 4th Edition, 2000. Publisher:
Nelson Thornes.
www.chemguide.co.uk (notes)
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry (video tutorials)
www.a-levelchemistry.co.uk (Q&A)
http://www.xtremepapers.com/ (PPQs)

Laboratory work
Your laboratory exercises will come from various sources.
The instructions will be typed and emailed, or photocopied
and given to you.
Your laboratory reports will be written on folder leaves and
inserted into a sturdy folder that I will keep.

You will submit your results for signing before you leave the
lab, to write up and submit the next day unless instructed
otherwise.

Laboratory work
I will give you the format for your lab reports
when you get the instructions sheet.
The situations for P&D labs will be given to
you on a Tuesday the latest, and the work is to
be submitted by the Friday of that week.
You need safety glasses, a laboratory coat and
sometimes protective gloves.

Assessment
You will be given a weekly test on the topics covered in the
previous week. This will predominantly test lower order processing
skills such as knowledge and comprehension.
At the end of each month you will be given a test that covers every
topic that was taught in that month. These questions will test your
higher order thinking skills, namely: application, analysis, synthesis
and evaluation of Chemistry information.
You will be given graded homework at different intervals.
I will collect your notebooks every other week to mark assigned
class work and to also monitor your work progress.

Assessment
Blooms taxonomy (Thinking skills)

Learning Pyramid

INTRODUCTION TO CHEMISTRY

Lesson Objectives
By the end of the period you should be able to:
1. Define the term organic chemistry.
2. Tell what carbon is and state the different allotropes
of carbon.
3. Define the terms: tetravalency, catenation,
hybridisation and resonance.
4. Explain why carbon can form so may compounds.

Branches of Chemistry
Physical

Biochemistry

Nuclear

Chemistry

Analytical

Inorganic

Organic

What is organic chemistry?

Organic Chemistry studies the structure, composition
and chemical properties of organic compounds.
Organic compounds are those compounds that
predominantly contain the elements carbon and
hydrogen.

CHEMISTRY OF CARBON

15

Carbon Allotropes
Carbon is the sixth element in the Periodic Table. It is a very unique
naturally abundant non-metallic element.

Carbon exists as allotropes. Allotropes are different forms of the

same element in the same physical state with different properties.
They are formed as a result of different bonding arrangements.
They therefore have different chemical and physical properties.

Diamond

Graphite

Charcoal

Fullerenes

16

Allotropes of Carbon

Diamond

sp3 hybridized
carbon atom

Graphite

sp2 hybridized
carbon atom
organized

Charcoal

sp2 hybridized
carbon atom
random

17

Properties of carbon
Carbon has the ability to form covalent bonds with a
large number of non-metals (and even some metals)
and therefore produces an almost infinite number of
compounds.

Tetravalency
Carbon is the sixth element and therefore has a ground
state electronic configuration of 1s2 2s2 2p2.
When carbon atoms move from the ground state to an
excited state (1s2 2s 2px 2py 2pz), four electrons are
available in the four sp3 hybridised orbitals for bonding.

Carbon in the excited (1s2 2s 2px 2py 2pz) state makes it

possible for the formation of four covalent bonds
(tetravalency) with itself and to other non-metallic
elements.

Catenation
Due to its electronegativity and small size, carbon atoms
can join to each other and form strong covalent bonds
(catenation) to produce a wide range of structures.
Catenation is the ability of an element to form long chainlike structures through a series of covalent bonds.
Carbon undergoes catenation to form all kinds of rings and
three-dimensional structures.
The covalent bonds between carbon atoms can be single,
double or triple, based on the type of hybridisation
occurring between the s and p orbitals.

Resonance
When carbon catenates to form polyunsaturated
ring structures, resonance is sometimes seen.
Resonance or mesomerism is a concept used to
describe delocalised electrons within certain
molecules or polyatomic ions where bonding
cannot be expressed by a single Lewis formula.
The delocalised electrons within these molecules
lowers the potential energy of the molecule, and
this increases its stability.

Summary
Carbon can form a range of organic molecules
because of:
- its strong covalent bonds.
- its ability to form four bonds (tetravalency).
- the ability of carbon atoms to add to each other
(catenation) and form different compounds and
isomers.
- the ability of carbon to form a variety of bonds
(single, double and triple).
- the ability to form stable aromatic compounds (resonance).

Home work
1) Make a list of 5 careers possible in chemistry
and state their job description.
2) What is a homologous series?
3) What is a functional group?
4) Differentiate between chemical properties and
physical properties within a homologous series.

References

Maraj, S and Samai, A. Chemistry for CAPE, 1st edition, 2009. Caribbean
Educational Publishers CEP: Trinidad. Pages 260-262.

Carbon allotropes http://www.chemguide.co.uk/atoms/structures/giantcov.html

Tetravalency and catenation of carbon http://chemguide.blogspot.com/2010/04/tetra-covalency-and-catenation-property.html

Hybridisation: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/basicorg/bonding/methane.html ,
http://www.chemguide.co.uk/basicorg/bonding/ethene.html and
http://www.chemguide.co.uk/basicorg/bonding/ethyne.html

Resonance, bonding in benzene

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/basicorg/bonding/benzene1.html

Test Guide
In addition to reading your textbooks, please
visit the websites given in the reference list for
information that will come on your test.

All the best!