Chapter 7A - Organic Chemistry

The study of compounds of carbon (with some exclusion e.g. carbon dioxide)

• can form 4 covalent bonds with other elements • very good at bonding with itself • forms stable compounds • can exist as structural isomers

• four valence electrons • can form four strong covalent bonds with other non-metals • shared octet of electrons provides good stability

• can form single, double or triple covalent bonds with itself (due to small atom size) • can form ring structures

• Bond strength between carbon and other elements may vary, but organic compounds are generally stable

• measure of the strength of the bond (amount of energy required to break apart one mol of covalently bonded molecules in the gaseous state) • higher energy = stronger bond • a molecule with strong bonds is generally more stable

• bond length - increases with decreasing bond length (bonds b/w larger atoms are longer) • greater difference in electronegativity of involved atoms = stronger bond • size of atoms

Two or more atoms covalently bonded by sharing electrons

How strongly an atoms attracts electrons towards itself.