The Breadth of Organic Chemistry

From the foregoing you may anticipate that the chemistry of carbon compounds will be largely the chemistry of covalent compounds and will not at all resemble the chemistry of inorganic salts such as sodium chloride. You also may anticipate that the major differences in chemical and physical properties of organic compounds will arise from the nature of the other elements bonded to carbon. Thus methane is not expected to, nor does it have, the same chemistry as other one-carbon compounds such as methyllithium, CH3Li, or methyl fluoride, CH3F. 

Exercise 1-9 Lithium hydride could be written as either Li Heor H Lie depending on whether lithium or hydrogen is more electron-attracting. Explain why hydrogen is actually more electron-attracting, making the correct structure Li H  

Exercise 1-10 An acid (HA) can be defined as a substance that donates a proton to a base, for example water. The proton-donation reaction usually is an equilibrium reaction and is written as 

Predict which member of each of the following pairs of compounds would be the stronger acid. Give your reasons. 

Modem civilization consumes vast quantities of organic compounds. Coal, petroleum, and natural gas are primary sources of carbon compounds for use in production of energy and as starting materials for the preparation of plastics, synthetic fibers, dyes, agricultural chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, detergents, rubbers and other elastomers, paints and other surface coatings, medicines and drugs, perfumes and flavors, antioxidants and other preservatives, as well as asphalts, lubricants, and solvents that are derived from petroleum. 

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