Lesson_2__Organic_Chemistry_翻译 2.doc

Lesson 2 Organic Chemistry The nature of Organic Chemistry has changed greatly since 1828. Before that time the scientific philosophy known as “Vitalism” maintained that Organic Chemistry was the chemistry of living systems. It maintained that organic compounds could only be produced within living matter while inorganic compounds were synthesized from non-living matter. Even the word “organic” comes from the same root as the word “organism” or “organ”. However people like Professor Wohler beginning in 1828 determined that it was indeed possible to synthesize organic compounds from those compounds that were considered inorganic. One of the first organic compounds synthesized from basically inorganic compounds was the compound Urea which is a metabolic product of urine. It was synthesized from Ammonium Cyanate considered a compound produced outside of living matter and therefore considered inorganic. Since then many millions of Organic compounds have been synthesized “in vitro” in other words outside living tissue. 1 Structural formulas The building block of structural organic chemistry is the tetravalent carbon atom. With few exceptions, carbon compounds can be formulated with four covalent bonds to each carbon, regardless of whether the combination is with carbon or some other element. The two-electron bond, which is illustrated by the carbon-hydrogen bonds in methane or ethane and the carbon-carbon bond in ethane, is called a single bond. In these and many related substances, each carbon is attached to four other atoms: There exist, however, compounds such as ethene (ethylene), C2H4, in which two electrons from each of the carbon atoms are mutually shared, thereby producing two two-electron bonds, an arrangement which is called a double bond. Each carbon in ethene is attached to only three other atoms: Similarly, in ethyne (acetylene), C2H2, three electrons from each carbon atom are mutually shared, producing three two-electron bonds, called a triple bond,