1. Elements in Living Things Notes
Organic Chemistry
Elements in Living Things Notes

2. Carbon Atoms and Bonding
All living things = carbon
Carbon wants 4 electrons to be stable.
Can make many combinations
Some molecules contain 1000’s of carbon atoms.
More than 90% of all known chemical substances contain carbon.. C

3. Carbon Bonding
Carbon can form straight chains, branched chains, and rings.

4. Diamonds – pure carbon
Carbon’s pure forms exist as diamonds, graphite, fullerenes, and nanotubes.
Diamonds form at really high temperatures and pressures.
Diamonds are extremely strong and nonreactive

5. Graphite – pure carbon
Graphite is carbon bonded to 3 other carbon atoms in flat layers.
Graphite is the ‘lead’ in your pencils.

6. Fullerenes – pure carbon
1985, scientists made a new form of carbon called fullerenes.
Carbon atoms in the shape of a hollow sphere.
Also called ‘buckyballs’.
Connecting pentagons similar to a soccer ball.

7. Nanotubes – pure carbon
In 1991, another form of carbon was made.
Nanotubes are carbon atoms arranged in the shape of a long, hollow cylinder.
Only a few nanometers wide.
Tiny, light, flexible, extremely strong, and good conductors of electricity and heat.
Nanotubes can make extremely strong cables.

8. Hydrocarbons
The simplest organic compounds are hydrocarbons – contains only hydrogen and carbon.
Examples: methane, propane, ethane, and butane
Properties: all flammable, and mostly used as fuels for stoves, heaters, cars, buses, and airplanes.

9. Formula for methane and ethane – all single bonds
Structural Formulas
Structural formulas show the kind, number and arrangement of atoms in a molecule.
-ane endings = saturated, all bonding sites filled with hydrogen atoms
Ex: ethane
-ene or –yne is unsaturated. Ex: Ethene
Structural of ethene – notice double bond

10. Polymers
Polymers are very large molecules made of a chain of many smaller molecules called ‘monomers’ bonded together.
Ex of polymers: DNA, cotton, silk, plastic, polyester, nylon,etc…