Chemical Bonding and Structure

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Organic chemistry is a broad field which intersects with such diverse areas as biology, medicine and pharmacology, polymer technology, agriculture, and petroleum engineering. At the core of organic chemistry are fundamental concepts of molecular structure and reactivity of carbon-containing compounds. The purpose of this text is to cover the central core of organic chemistry. This knowledge can be used within organic chemistry or applied to other fields, such as those named above, which require significant contributions from organic chemistry. One organizational approach to organic chemistry divides it into three main areas—structure, dynamics, and synthesis. Structure includes the description of bonding in organic molecules and the methods for determining, analyzing, and predicting molecular structure. Dynamics refers to study of the physical properties and chemical transformations of molecules. Synthesis includes those activities which are directed toward finding methods which convert existing substances into different compounds. These three areas are all interrelated, but synthesis is built on knowledge of both structure and reactions (chemical dynamics), while understanding dynamic processes ultimately rests on detailed knowledge about molecular structure. A firm grounding in the principles of structure and chemical bonding is therefore an essential starting point for fuller appreciation of dynamics and synthesis. In this first chapter, we will discuss the ideas that have proven most useful to organic chemists for describing and correlating facts, concepts, and theories about the structure of organic molecules.