Functional Groups - Background
If you are familiar with functional groups and basic organic nomenclature (naming compounds) proceed to background information about identifying organic compounds.
Organic chemistry is concerned with compounds that are composed primarily of carbon. Although this includes millions and millions of compounds, the classification of these compounds into a relatively small number of groups makes the study of organic chemistry much simpler. This classification is usually based on the functional groups they contain. A functional group is a set of atoms bonded in a particular way that imparts a variety of characteristics to the compound. The presence of functional groups helps determine the chemical reactivity, the melting/boiling point and the solubility of the compound, just to name a few.
Before we begin discussing each of the functional groups we need to be aware of the many different ways used to draw organic molecules.
