Organic chemistry

Organic or inorganic? 

The name ‘organic’ was given by early chemists who divided chemical compounds into two groups.

Organic - living	Inorganic - non living

Chemical compounds formed by living organisms eg. sugars, fats, amino acids were called organic chemicals. The name 'organic' come from the word organism meaning living. These chemicals initally could not be made in the laboratory.

Chemicals that occurred as the result of natural non living process were called inorganic chemicals. eg. NaCl, CuSO₄, N₂, O₂, CO₂ and Fe₂O₃.

In 1850 Friedrich Wohler made the organic chemical urea in a laboratory from the inorganic compound ammonium cyanate. Today, chemists can make millions of organic compounds

Organic chemistry is defined as the chemistry of carbon compounds as the element carbon is always present in such compounds. eg. The organic molecules methane, formula CH₄ and glucose, formula C₆H₁₂O₆ both contain carbon atoms.

Carbon is unique among the elements in the number of compounds it can form which are in the order of tens of millions. Why? Carbon atoms have the ability to bond themselves to one another and to other atoms forming long chains and cyclic structures. The chains may have side branches (alkyl groups) and other atoms attached to it such as nitrogen, sulfur, fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine.