Carbon-based compounds

The entire spectrum of inorganic fibers can be divided into two classes, based on differences in the crystallinity of the solids (Ray, 1978). Synthetic fibers have been known as man-made mineral fibers (MMMF) and manmade vitreous fibers (MMVF). But fibrous materials can be approached or divided in other ways. For example, in the Concise Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (1985) the entry for chemical fibers includes both manmade and natural polymers, with the discussion centering on carbon-based compounds such as acetates, acrylics, and cellulose. Fibers of other inorganic compounds were not mentioned in the encyclopedia under this entry, but silica glass fibers were described under the heading Optical Fibers. ... 

The sixth element in the periodic table, carbon, has the electron configuration 2s 2 and, thus, has 4 valence electrons in the unfilled orbitals of its second electron shell. To fill these orbitals to a stable set of 8 valence electrons, a single carbon atom may share electrons with 2, 3, or even 4 other atoms. No other element forms such strong bonds to as many other atoms as carbon does. Moreover, multiple carbon atoms readily link together with single, double, or triple bonds. These factors make element number 6 unique in the entire periodic table. The number of carbon-based compounds is many times greater than the total of all compounds lacking carbon. 

Oil biomolecules consisting of glycerols and fatty acids (triglycerides) that are liquid at room temperature Oil of Vitriol concentrated sulfuric acid Optical Isomer isomers that differ in their ability to rotate light in opposite directions Organic Chemistry chemistry of carbon-based compounds... 

However, even after all traces of Berzelius s ideas on vitalism had been disproved by experiment, his associated term organic survived.- After Wohler had shown thathumans as well as organisms could make organic chemicals, the term organic chemistryhecame the chemical study of any carbon-based compounds, and that usage remains. 

In large organic, or carbon-based, compounds, there are often long chains of carbon atoms, which can be straight-chain or branched. Hydrogen and oxygen are the atoms that are most commonly attached to the carbons, but the atoms of various other elements are often included. 

Many drugs are complex carbon-based compounds. Some of these drugs have been discovered in plants, especially in areas of tropical rain forests, where there is enormous plant diversity. These plants sometimes contain unique organic compounds that can be developed into important drugs for treatment of serious diseases, such as cancer. Often, the people who are native to these areas are aware of the medicinal properties of the plants and use them to treat various ailments. 

Organic photoeleclrochemistry is that field of investigation in which redox reactions of carbon-based compounds are initiated or assisted by the absorption of a photon at or near the surface of an electrode The principles of photoelectrochemistry have been well described elsewhere and only a very brief discussion of their salient features is given here. 

Palacio F, Makarova T, editors. Carbon based magnetism an overview of the magnetism of metal free carbon-based compounds and material. Amsterdam, Netherlands Elsevier 2006. 

Enoki, T. and K. Takai. 2006. Unconventional magnetic properties of nanographite. In F. Palacio and T. Makorova (eds.), Carbon-Based Magnetism An Overview of the Magnetism of Metal Free Carbon-Based Compounds and Materials, pp. 397-416, Elsevier Science, London. 

Infer a relationship between the stability of a compound and bond energy. Then suggest a reason why there are many more carbon-based compounds than silicon-based compounds. 

In a combustion reaction, a carbon-based compound reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water. 

Unlike chiral carbon-based compounds, most chiral amines can t be resolved because the two enantiomeric forms rapidly interconvert by a pyramidal inversion, much as an alkyl halide inverts in an S>42 reaction. Pyramidal inversion occurs by a momentary rchybridization of the nitrogen atom to planar, geometry, followed by rehybridization of the planar intermediate to tetrahedral, sp geometry (Figure 24.1). 

During his final months in Berlin, he dipped into the booming field of organic chemistry—the study of carbon-based compounds like coal, or those that make up the human body. No discipline was producing a greater flood of new discoveries. Thousands of new carbon-based compounds were born each year, and a small army of chemists investigated their potential uses in industry, in the home, and even as medicines. 

Methane, ethane, and propane are hydrocarbons, compounds that contain only carbon and hydrogen. Fossil fuels that we burn to heat our homes, cook our food, and power our cars, are primarily hydrocarbons. For example, natural gas is a mixture of hydrocarbons with from one to four carbons, and gasoline contains hydrocarbon molecules with from six to twelve carbons. Like the hydrocarbons described above, many of the important compounds in nature contain a backbone of carbon-carbon bonds. These compounds are called organic compounds, and the study of carbon-based compounds is called organic chemistry. 

Organic chemistry The branch of chemistry that involves the study of carbon-based compounds. 

A reaction s yield is also affected by the occurrence of side reactions. This is particularly common in reactions of organic (carbon-based) compounds. Side reactions are reactions occurring in the reaction mixture that form products other than the desired product. For example, in one reaction, butane, CH3CH2CH2CH3, reacts with chlorine gas in the presence of light to form 2-chlorobutane and hydrogen chloride ... 

Organic (carbon-based) compounds are often much more complex than inorganic compounds, so it is more difficult to deduce their structures ftom their chemical formulas. Moreover, many organic formulas represent two or more isomers, each with a Lewis structure of its own (Section 12.2). The formula C6H14O, for example, has numerous isomers, including... 

Molecules are certainly more varied than life forms. Even carbon-based compounds can be considered as unlimited in number, despite the fact that they almost exclusively involve four bonds around each carbon centre in a very limited number of shapes. When we move to coordination compounds, the range of coordination numbers and shapes is expanded considerably, so that coordination complexes live up to their name - they are inherently complex molecular forms. Fortunately, we can identify a number of basic shapes and even some system that governs outcomes - that is, there is some predictive aspect to shape in coordination complexes. We shall examine complexes from the perspective of coordination number below. 

The pharmaceutical industry relies on products like cholesterollowering drugs, blood-thinners, and flu and pneumonia vaccines—just a few of the huge number of brand name and generic drugs on the market—all of which are carbon-based compounds. 

---