Organic Chemistry I
Dr Alex Roche
Organic chemistry is the chemistry of Carbon and its compounds.
Organic molecules constitute the essence of life (fats, sugars, proteins,
DNA), and also permeate our everyday lives (cotton, polyester, toothpaste,
plastics, etc).
Chemistry’s top two commercial fields are organic dominated:
Pharmaceuticals and Polymers.
Organic chemistry is also easy - IF:
don’t fall behind
do the problems
understand, not memorize
Notes are available at:
http://crab.rutgers.edu/~alroche/
Office: SCI
311
Lab: SCI
328F
Tel: (856) 225-6166
[email protected]
Ch01 Introduction
1
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Structure of the Atom
Atoms consist of: Protons (+ve)
Neutrons (neutral)
Electrons (-ve)
Protons and neutrons are in the nucleus and have similar masses (1800x that
of an electron).
Atoms with the same number of protons but different neutrons are called
ISOTOPES. E.g.
12
C (major isotope)
13
C (~1%, used in carbon NMR)
14
C (radioactive, used in Carbon dating)
Almost all the mass of an atom is in the nucleus, but it is the electrons
that
are involved in the chemical bonding and reactions of an atom.
Electronic Structure of the Atom
Electrons display wave-particle duality.
Electrons are located in orbitals around a nucleus, but the Heisenberg
Uncertainty Principle tells us that we cannot pinpoint exactly where the
electron is.
So we use the term ELECTRON DENSITY, which is the probability of
finding the electron in a particular part of the orbital.
ORBITAL: is an allowed energy state for an electron, with an associated
probability function that defines the distribution of electron density in space.
Atomic Orbitals
These are different shells at differing distances away from the nucleus. Each
has a principal quantum number (n).
As n increases,
Shells are further from the nucleus
Higher energy
Can hold more electrons
n=1 can hold 2 electrons, n=2 can hold 8 electrons
Ch01 Introduction
2