Chemistry C3.5

C3 5.1

Organic molecules form the basis of living things all always contain carbon atoms. A series of molecules that have a formula are called homologous series. Alkanes and alkenes are two of these series. Alcohols, Carboxylic Acids and Esters are also examples and this is what we are going to study in this topic.

To get the names, we base them off the following ideas: "Meth" is 1 carbon atom, "Eth" is two carbon atoms and "Prop" is three carbon atoms.

Alcohols contain the functional group of -O-H. If one hydrogen atom is replaced in a alkane molecule with an -O-H group, we get a homologous series. To get an alcohol, add "anol" at the end. Therefore, an alcohol with 1 carbon atom is "methanol". The structural formulae of ethanol is CH3CH2OH to represent each of the carbon atoms linked to different amounts of hydrogen atoms.

Carboxylic acids have a functional group of -COOH. However, carboxylic acids have the structural formulae of HCOOH, CH3COOH and CH3CH2COOH. It is like this because the carbon atom furthest to the right, instead of carrying 2 hydrogen atoms, carries a single -O-H and a double =O, with each going off in a diagonal direction. To see the image, simply type into google images: "ethanoic acid". To get the name of these, simply add "anoic acid", for example methanoic acid.

Esters have structural formulas, like CH3COOCH2CH3. They are made when you take a carboxylic acid and replace the final hydrogen atom with…