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The atoms of carbon can bond together in different ways, termed allotropes of carbon.
The best known are graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon. The physical
properties of carbon vary widely with the allotropic form. For example, graphite is
opaque and black while diamond is highly transparent. Graphite is soft enough to form
a streak on paper, while diamond is the hardest naturally occurring material known.
Graphite is a good electrical conductor while diamond has a low electrical
conductivity. Under normal conditions, diamond, carbon nanotubes, and graphene
have the highest thermal conductivities of all known materials. All carbon allotropes
are solids under normal conditions, with graphite being the most thermodynamically
stable form. They are chemically resistant and require high temperature to react even
with oxygen.
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Atoms of other elements like hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine also show sharing
of valence electrons.
Depending on the number of electron pairs shared, covalent bond is of three types:
1. Single Covalent Bond: Single covalent bond is formed because of sharing of two
electrons, i.e. one pair .Example: Hydrogen, Chlorine, and Methane.
2. Double covalent bond: Double bond is formed by sharing of four electrons, i.e. two
pairs of electrons. Example: Oxygen molecule, Carbon Dioxide molecule.
3. Triple Covalent Bond: Triple covalent bond is formed because of the sharing of six
electrons, three pairs of electrons. Example: Nitrogen, C2H2
Two important properties which enable carbon to form enormously large number of
compounds:
Catenation
Tetra-Valency
Catenation
In chemistry, catenation is the bonding of atoms of the same element into a series,
called a chain. A chain may be open if its ends are not bonded to each other (an open-chain
compound), or closed if they are bonded in a ring (a cyclic compound).
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Catenation occurs most readily with carbon, which forms covalent bonds with other
carbon atoms to form longer chains and structures. This is the reason for the presence of the
vast number of organic compounds in nature. Carbon is most well-known for its properties of
catenation, with organic chemistry essentially being the study of catenated carbon structures.
Carbon chains in biochemistry combine any of various other elements, such as hydrogen,
oxygen, and biometals, onto the backbone of carbon, and proteins can combine multiple
chains encoded by multiple genes (such as light chains and heavy chains making up
antibodies).
Tetra-Valency
In chemistry, tetravalence is the state of an atom with four valence electrons available
for covalent chemical bonding in its outermost electron shell, giving the atom a chemical
valence of four.
An example is methane (CH4): the tetravalent carbon atom forms a covalent bond
with four hydrogen atoms. The carbon atom is called tetravalent because it forms 4 covalent
bonds. A carbon atom has a total of six electrons occupying the first two shells, i.e., the K-
shell has two electrons and the L-shell has four electrons. This distribution indicates that in
the outermost shell there are one completely filled 's' orbital and two half-filled 'p' orbitals,
showing carbon to be a divalent atom. But in actuality, carbon displays tetravalency in the
combined state. Therefore, a carbon atom has four valence electrons. It could gain four
electrons to form the C4− anion or lose four electrons to form the C4+ cation. Both these
conditions would take carbon far away from achieving stability by the octet rule.
Hydrocarbons
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of
hydrogen and carbon.
The classifications for hydrocarbons are as follows:
Saturated Hydrocarbons
Unsaturated Hydrocarbons
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Saturated Hydrocarbon
Saturated hydrocarbons are hydrocarbons that contain only single bonds between
carbon atoms. They are also known as Alkanes. They are the simplest class of hydrocarbons.
They are called saturated because each carbon atom is bonded to as many hydrogen atoms
as possible. In other words, the carbon atoms are saturated with hydrogen.
You can see an example of a saturated hydrocarbon in the figure.
In this compound, named ethane, each carbon atom is bonded to three
hydrogen atoms. In the structural formula, each dash (-) represents a
single covalent bond, in which two atoms share one pair of valence
electrons.
Unsaturated Hydrocarbon
Unsaturated hydrocarbons are hydrocarbons that have double or triple covalent
bonds between adjacent carbon atoms. Those with at least one carbon-to-carbon double
bond are called alkenes and those with at least one carbon-to-carbon triple bond are called
alkynes.
An alkene is a hydrocarbon with one or more carbon-carbon
double covalent bonds. The simplest alkene is composed of two carbon
atoms and is called ethene (shown). Each carbon is bonded to two
hydrogen atoms in addition to the double bond between them.
An alkyne is a hydrocarbon with one or more carbon-carbon
triple covalent bonds. The simplest alkyne consists of two carbon atoms
and is called ethyne (common name: acetylene).
Lewis Structure
A Lewis structure is a graphic representation of the electron distribution around
atoms.
Steps to draw a Lewis structure :
1. Decide how many valence (outer shell) electrons are possessed by each atom in the
molecule.
2. If there is more than one atom type in the molecule, put the most metallic or least
electronegative atom in the center. Recall that electro-negativity decreases as atom
moves further away from fluorine on the periodic chart.
3. Arrange the electrons so that each atom contributes one electron to a single bond
between each atom.
4. Count the electrons around each atom: are the octets complete? If so, your Lewis dot
structure is complete.
5. If the octets are incomplete, and more electrons remain to be shared, move one
electron per bond per atom to make another bond. Note that in some structures there
will be open octets (example: the B of BF3), or atoms which have ten electrons
(example: the S of SF5).
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6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as needed until all octets are full.
7. Redraw the dots so that electrons on any given atom are in pairs wherever possible.
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Nomenclature
Nomenclature is the system of assignment of names given to organic compounds. In
chemistry, a number of prefixes, suffixes and infixes are used to describe the type and position
of functional groups in the compound.
The steps for naming an organic compound are:
1. Identify the number of carbon atoms in the compound.
2. Functional group is indicated either by prefix or suffix.
Alkene- ene
Alkyn- yne
Alcohol- ol
Aldehyde- al
Ketone- one
Carboxylic acid- oic acid
Chlorine -chloro
3. If a suffix is added, then final ‘e’ is removed from the name e.g.methanol
(methane-e = methan + ol).
Homologous Series
In organic chemistry, a homologous series is a series of compounds with the same
general formula, usually varying by a single parameter. This can be the length of a carbon
chain, for example in the straight-chained alkanes (paraffins).
For instance, the ALCOHOLS: CH2OH, C2H5OH, C3H7OH, C4H9OH.
The successive member differs by one -CH2 unit and 14 units of mass.
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The chemical properties are imparted by the functional group thus all members have
similar chemical properties. But the members have different physical properties.
The physical properties vary among the members of homologous series due to
difference in their molecular mass.
Melting point and boiling point increases with increasing molecular mass.
2. Oxidation:
Alcohols can be converted to carboxylic acids by oxidizing them using alkaline
potassium permanganate or acidified potassium di-chromate (they add oxygen
to the reactant, thus are called oxidizing agents).
3. Addition Reaction:
An addition reaction, in organic chemistry, is in its simplest terms an organic
reaction where two or more molecules combine to form a larger one.
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Ethanoic Acid
5-8% solution of acetic acid in water is called vinegar.
Pure acetic acid is called glacial acetic acid.
Hydrolysis On heating with an acid or a base the ester forms back the original alcohol
and carboxylic acid.
Alkaline hydrolysis of ester is also called saponification.
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Soaps and Detergents
Soap is sodium and potassium salt
of carboxylic acids with long chain.
Soaps are effective with soft water
only and ineffective with hard
water.
Detergents are ammonium or
sulphonate salts of carboxylic acids
with long chain. They are effective
with both soft as well as hard water.
________________________
Miss Rakhi Rani
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