Sunday, February 10, 2019

Organic Chemistry

If organic chemistry is the study of carbon, then why isn't carbon dioxide considered to be an organic compound?

The answer is because organic molecules don't just contain carbon. They contain hydrocarbons or carbon bonded to hydrogen.

When you're determining whether a carbon compound is organic or not, look to see whether it contains hydrogen in addition to carbon and whether the carbon is bonded to the hydrogen.

Carbon dioxide isn't the only compound that contains carbon but isn't organic. Other examples include carbon monoxide (CO), sodium bicarbonate, iron cyanide complexes, and carbon tetrachloride. Amorphous carbon, buckminsterfullerene, graphite, and diamond are all inorganic.


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