ORGANIC

CHEMISTRY
Introduction
CSEC Chemistry Printable
The Uniqueness of Carbon

■ Valency of 4

■ Can form 4 single bonds with itself or other atoms such as H, F, Cl, Br, O

■ Can form long or short chains with itself (catenation)

■ Can form rings with itself

■ Can form double bonds with itself or other atoms such as O and triple
bonds with itself or other atoms such as N
Homologous Series
Definition

■ A set of organic compounds that have similar characteristics and are

grouped together as one type of family of compounds.

Characteristics

■ All members have the same general molecular formula

■ Successive members differ from each other by a –CH2 group or a mass
of 14
■ As the number of C atoms increases, the melting point, boiling point and
density of members increases
■ All members have similar chemical reactions because they have the
same functional group
■ All members can be prepared by the same general method
Functional Group

■ A functional group is a bond, an atom or a group of atoms that

determine the chemical reactions of the members of a particular
homologous series.
■ For example, four of the five homologous series studied in this syllabus
are listed below along with their respective functional groups

Homologous Series Functional Group

Alkane - C-

Alkene -C=

Alcohol - C - OH

Carboxylic (Alkanoic) Acid -COOH

General Molecular Formula
■ This is a formula that is used to work out the molecular formula
of any member of a homologous series based on the number of
Carbon atoms in the compound.
■ The molecular formula of a compound tells us the number of
atoms of each element that are present in one molecule or one
mole of molecules of a compound. Eg.: H2O tells us there are two
H atoms and one O atom in one molecule of water or two moles
of H atoms and one mole of O atoms in one mole of water.
■ The general molecular formula for four homologous series in your
syllabus are listed.
Homologous series General Molecular Formula

CnH2n+2 n>0 Alkane

CnH2n n> 1 Alkene

CnH2n+1OH n> 0 Alcohol

CnH2n+1COOH n≥ 0 Carboxylic Acid

Using the General Molecular
Formula
For the alkanes, CnH2n+2 n>0. The “n” indicates a number greater than 0 so we start at
1 and progress successively to determine each member.

This means that for the first member n=1 and it has one Carbon atom, so the formula becomes
C1H2x1+2 which is the same as CH4
Use the general molecular formulae for each homologous series to work out the molecular
formula of the first six members of each family.

In the next printable, we will discuss Isomerism and Naming compounds.