Functional groups, organic haloalkane

Haloalkanes are alkanes that contain one or more members of the halogen family. The halogens found in organic molecules are chlorine, bromine, fluorine, and iodine. Haloalkanes are the first type of functional group discussed in this book. 

Haloalkane An organic molecule who.se functional group is a carbon-halogen bond. 

In this chapter, we study both of these organic reactions. Using them, we can convert haloalkanes to compounds with other functional groups including alcohols, ethers, thiols, sulfides, amines, nitriles, alkenes, and alkynes. Thus, an understanding of nucleophilic substitution and )3-elimination opens entirely new areas of organic chemistry. 

Alcohols are particularly important in both laboratory and biochemical transformations of organic compounds. They can be converted into other types of compounds, such as al-kenes, haloalkanes, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and esters. Not only can alcohols be converted to these compounds, but they also can be prepared from them.Thus, alcohols play a central role in the interconversion of organic functional groups. 

We shall then study the haloalkanes, our first example of compounds containing a functional group—the carbon-halogen bond. The haloalkanes participate in two types of organic reactions substitution and elimination (Chapters 6 and 7). In a substitution reaction, one halogen atom may be replaced by another in an elimination process, adjacent atoms may be removed from a molecule to generate a double bond. 

Like the haloalkanes, each of the major classes of organic compounds is characterized by a particular functional group. For example, the carbon-carbon triple bond is the functional group of alkynes (Chapter 13) the smallest alkyne, acetylene, is the chemical burned in a welder s torch. A carbon-oxygen double bond is characteristic of aldehydes and ketones (Chapter 17) formaldehyde and acetone are major industrial commodities. The amines... 

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