Collections:Texts:Chemistry:Chapter 8 - Properties of Organic Compounds and Other Covalent Substances
From ChemEd Collaborative
PROPERTIES OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS AND OTHER COVALENT SUBSTANCES
8.1 Covalent Compounds and Intermolecular Forces
8.2 Organic Compounds: Hydrocarbons
8.4 Organic Compounds-Some Additional Classes
8.6 Synthetic Macromolecules: Some Applied Organic Chemistry
In Chap. 6 we described a number of macroscopic properties of ionic substances, such as electrical conductivity, crystal shape and cleavage, and characteristic chemical behavior of ions. These were understandable in terms of the microscopic picture of individual ions packed into a crystal lattice in a solid ionic compound or able to move past one another in a liquid or solution. The macroscopic properties of covalent and polar covalent substances can likewise be attributed to microscopic structure, and in this chapter we will see how the nature of the molecules in a covalently bonded substance influences its behavior.
The number of covalent substances is far larger than the number of ionic compounds, largely because of the ability of one element, carbon, to form strong bonds with itself. Hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and a number of other elements also bond strongly to carbon, and a tremendous variety of compounds can result. In the early days of chemistry such compounds were obtained from plants or animals rather than being synthesized by chemists, and so they came to be known as organic compounds. This distinguished them from the inorganic compounds available from nonliving portions of the earth’s surface. Today literally millions of carbon compounds can be synthesized in laboratories, and so this historical distinction is no longer valid. Nevertheless, the study of carbon compounds is still referred to as organic chemistry. Since organic compounds all involve covalent bonds, we will describe a number of them in this chapter. Many are of consider-able commercial importance, and you probably encounter them, perhaps without knowing it, every day.
Go to previous | Go to start of chapter | Return to Table of Contents | Go to next
