Organic compound
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Benzene is the simplest of the arenes, a family of organic compounds |
An
organic compound is any member of a large class of
chemical compounds whose
molecules contain
carbon and
hydrogen; therefore,
carbides,
carbonates, carbon
oxides and
elementary carbon are not organic. The study of organic compounds is termed
organic chemistry, and since it is a vast collection of chemicals (over half of all known chemical compounds), systems have been devised to classify organic compounds. A few of the compound classes are as follows:
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Methane is the simplest possible organic compound |
Many organic compounds are also of prime importance in
biochemistry:
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Antigens
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Polysaccharides,
carbohydrates and
sugars*
Enzymes*
Hormones*
Lipids and
fatty acids*
Neurotransmitters*
Nucleic acids*
Proteins,
peptides and
amino acids*
VitaminsThe name "organic" is a
historical name, dating back to 19th century, when it was believed that organic compounds could only be synthesised 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 disproven with the synthesis of
urea, an organic compound, from potassium cyanate and ammonium sulfate by
Friedrich Wöhler.
The dividing line between organic and inorganic is contested and historically arbitrary; generally speaking, however, organic compounds are defined as those compounds which have
carbon-hydrogen bonds, and
inorganic compounds, those without. Thus
carbonic acid is inorganic, whereas
formic acid, the first
fatty acid, is organic, although it could as well be called "carbonous acid".
This definition would leave out non-hydrogen-containing fluorocarbons like
Teflon and
Freon, or put them in a grey area, since they are carbon-containing and have many of the same properties of C-H compounds, due to the similarity of the C-F bond to the C-H bond.
Most pure organic compounds are artificially produced; however, the term "organic" is also used to describe products produced without artificial chemicals (see
organic production).
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Organic chemistry*
Inorganic chemistry of carbon*
List of organic compounds*
List of compounds
