Organic Chemistry Lecture Notes & Labs

Organic chemistry is more than simply the study of carbon or the study of chemicals in living organisms. Take a look at what organic chemistry is, why it is important, and what organic chemists do.

Learn some interesting facts about carbon, the element that is the basis for organic chemistry.

Functional groups are groups of atoms found within molecules that are involved in the chemical reactions characteristic of those molecules. Functional groups can pertain to any molecules, but you will usually hear about them in the context of organic chemistry.

Make your chemistry laboratory experience safe by following these simple rules.

Find out what elements are in the human body and what these elements do.

These are the structures for the twenty natural amino acids, plus the general structure for an amino acid.

As the price of diesel continues to climb, you may wish to consider making your own diesel from cooking oil, called biodiesel. It's easy and could save you money.

Carbohydrates or saccharides are the most abundant class of biomolecules. Carbohydrates are used to store energy, though they serve other important functions as well. This is an overview of carbohydrate chemistry, including a look at the types of carbohydrates, their functions, and carbohydrate classification.

Carbon is an element that is essential for life. The carbon cycle describes the storage and exchange of carbon between the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.

The citric acid cycle, also known as the Krebs cycle or tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, is a series of chemical reactions in the cell that breaks down food molecules into carbon dioxide, water, and energy.

These are the names and structures of important organic functional groups containing nitrogen or oxygen. Learn 'em, live 'em, love 'em!

Lipids are class of naturally-occurring organic compounds that you may know by their common names: fats and oils. Here's a look at the function, structure, and physical properties of lipids.

Glycolysis is the name given to the series of biochemical reactions in which glucose is converted into pyruvate. This important part of carbohydrate catabolism takes place in the cytoplasm of cells. Several reactions take place, with products that are vital to the functioning of the cell.

Learn how to synthesize aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid, from salicyclic acid. Get information about the history of aspirin, the effects of salicylates, and see the structures of the reactants.

Monomers are the building blocks of more complex molecules, called polymers. Polymers consist of repeating molecular units which usually are joined by covalent bonds. Here is a closer look at the chemistry of monomers and polymers.

If you're taking general chemistry, organic, or biochemistry, you'll need to understand some basic concepts about nucleic acids, the polymers used to code the genetic information of organisms. Here are some quick nucleic acid facts to get you started.

Photosynthesis is the name for the set of chemical reactions used by plants and other organisms to make food from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water. Here's a look at the process and study questions to help make sure you understand the key concepts.

These are the chemical structures of the purines, pyrimidines, nucleosides, and nucleotides.

Saturated fats are important in diet and nutrition as well as chemistry. Here's an explanation of what a saturated fat is.

Many organi0 structures, including amino acids and rings, are listed in this directory, with more added all of the time.

Problems relating to heavy organic deposition during oil refining. From G. A. Mansoori, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Illustrative material designed to enhance the learning of organic chemistry. From Thomas H. Eberlein, Pennsylvania State University.

Arrows that denote movement of electrons during bond formation or cleavage. From Mary Masson, University of Aberdeen.

Take your choice from GIF, VRML, or PDB formats of many simple and complex organic molecules.

Appealing experiments from Mansfield University.

Challenging Q & A from the University of Wisconsin.

A. Cockshutt's course outline and lecture notes for Mount Allison Univeristy's organic chemistry course are given.

Detailed experiments from McMaster University.

This helpful site includes the following sections: The Literature, The Bench, Structural Analysis, The Desk, Communication, and Additional Activities. Each page has a logical structure and quick load time!

Search on molecular weight, melting point, empirical formulas, etc.

Displays IR, NMR, and mass spectra of a compound. Answer sheet available only to chemistry instructors. From University of Notre Dame.

Includes definitions of coordination chemistry and the 18-electron rule. From Interactive Learning Paradigms.

Java images of molecular structures. From Ilkka Roininen.

An alkane is a hydrocarbon molecule made up entirely of carbon and hydrogen where the carbon atoms are connected by carbon-carbon single bonds. The general formula for an alkane is C n H 2n+2 where n is the number of carbon atoms in the molecule. Each carbon atom has four single bonds and forms a tetrahedron. This means the bond angle is 109.5...

This table lists the prefixes used in organic chemistry nomenclature to represent the number of carbon atoms in a basic hydrocarbon chain.

An alkyne is a molecule made up entirely of carbon and hydrogen where on or more carbon atoms are connected by triple bonds. The general formula for an alkyne is C n H 2n-2 where n is the number of carbon atoms in the molecule. Alkanes are named by adding the the -yne suffix to the prefix associated with the number of carbon atoms present...

An alkene is a molecule made up entirely of carbon and hydrogen where on or more carbon atoms are connected by double bonds. The general formula for an alkene is C n H 2n where n is the number of carbon atoms in the molecule. Alkanes are named by adding the the -ene suffix to the prefix associated with the number of carbon atoms present in...

A simple alkyl group is a functional group made up entirely of carbon and hydrogen where the carbon atoms are chained together by single bonds. The general molecular formula for simple alkyl groups is -C n H 2n+1 where n is the number of carbon atoms in the group. Simple alkyl groups are named by adding the the -yl suffix to the prefix...