Organic Chemistry CHE111 - Bonding and Structure

Study Notes

Course Overview: Organic chemistry (CHE111) focuses on carbon-containing components derived from living beings or organic matter.
Grading:
- Attendance: 20%
- Course activities (quizzes, assignments, presentations): 30%
- Lab: 10%
- Midterm exam: 40%
- Final exam: 100%
- Passing grade: 60% overall, 30% on the final.

Letter Grades:
- A+: > 97% - 4 points
- A: 93% - 97% - 4 points
- A-: 89% - 93% - 3.7 points
- B+: 84% - 89% - 3.3 points
- B: 80% -84% - 3.0 points
- B-: 76% - 80% - 2.7 points
- C+: 73% -76% - 2.3 points
- C: 70% - 73% - 2.0 points
- C-: 67% - 70% - 1.7 points
- D+: 64% - 67% - 1.3 points
- D: 60% - 64% - 1.0 points
- F: <60% - 0.0 points

Organic Chemistry (11th Edition) by Francis Carey and Robert Giuliano, Neil Allison and Susan Bane.
Introduction to Organic Chemistry (4th Edition) by William Brown and Thomas Poon.
Organic Chemistry (9th Edition) by T.W. Graham Solomons and Craig B. Fryhle.

Historically, organic chemistry focused on compounds from living things, believing a "vital force" was necessary for their creation.
Friedrich Wöhler's 1828 synthesis of urea challenged this, demonstrating inorganic compounds could produce organic molecules.
Today, organic chemistry studies carbon-containing compounds, vital in life processes and countless materials.

Oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons formed from the breakdown of dead creatures and plants over millions of years.
Crude Oil: This oil is complex and not useful in its raw form. It must be separated into simpler mixtures.
Fractional Distillation: This process separates crude oil into simpler products based on their varying boiling points.
Carbon compounds are present in food, flavors, medicines, cosmetics, plastics, fibers, paints, and in living things (DNA, proteins).
The nature of carbon bonding contributes greatly to its diversity.

Forms strong covalent bonds with other carbons and other elements like hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen.
Can form chains and rings, creating a huge variety of structures.

Elements/Compounds: Pure substances comprise either elements (containing a single atom type) or compounds (containing two or more atom types).
Atoms: The smallest unit of an ordinary matter. Consists of a nucleus (protons and neutrons) and surrounding electrons.
Electrostatic Force: Keeps negatively-charged electrons around the positively-charged nucleus.
Atomic Number: The number of protons in an atom's nucleus, defining the element.
Mass Number: The total number of protons and neutrons in an atom's nucleus.
Isotopes: Atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons.
Electron Cloud: The electrons occupy space likely to be found in orbitals around the nucleus. The electrons contribute negligible mass to the volume of an atom.
Energy Levels/Shells: Electrons are organized in specific regions of space.
Atomic Orbitals: Mathematical functions that define where an electron is likely to be found.
Valence Electrons: The electrons in the outermost energy shell, most active in chemical reactions. Knowing the element's group number in the periodic table indicates the number of valence electrons.

Formula Weight: The sum of the atomic weights of an element or molecule calculated in atomic mass units (amu).
Avogadro's Number (NA): 6.022 × 10²³ - The number of objects (atoms, molecules, ions) in one mole of a substance.
Mole: A unit of measurement representing the amount of a substance. A mole of anything contains Avogadro's number of objects.
Molar Mass: The mass of one mole of a substance. Equal numerically to the substance's formula weight in atomic mass units.

Empirical formula: Shows the simplest whole-number ratio of elements in a compound.
Molecular formula: Shows the exact number of atoms of each element in a molecule.
Calculating the molecular formula from the empirical formula requires knowing the molecular weight. The molecular formula is a whole number multiple of the empirical formula.

Organic compounds containing carbon and hydrogen, when completely combusted, produce CO₂ and H₂O. The masses of CO₂ and H₂O provide data for the number of C and H atoms in the original compound.