"A functional group is a substituent or moiety in a molecule that causes the molecule's characteristic chemical reactions."
Learning about the properties and reactions of these functional groups, including oxidation and reduction reactions.
Nomenclature: Understanding the rules of naming alcohols, ethers, and thiols according to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) system.
Physical properties: Understanding the physical properties of alcohols, ethers, and thiols, such as boiling points, melting points, solubility, and density.
Chemical properties: Understanding the chemical properties of alcohols, ethers, and thiols, including their reactivity towards acid and base, oxidation, reduction, and substitution reactions.
Synthesis: Understanding the different methods for synthesizing alcohols, ethers, and thiols, including the preparation of alkyl halides, Grignard reagents, and reduction reactions.
Functional group interconversions: Understanding how to convert between different functional groups, including the conversion of alcohols to ethers and thiols, and the conversion of ethers and thiols to other functional groups.
Spectroscopy: Understanding the different types of spectroscopy used in the identification and characterization of alcohols, ethers, and thiols, including infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.
Properties of specific alcohols, ethers, and thiols: Understanding the properties of specific alcohols, ethers, and thiols, including methanol, ethanol, propanol, diethyl ether, and thiols such as methanethiol and ethanethiol.
Biological and industrial relevance: Understanding the biological and industrial relevance of alcohols, ethers, and thiols, including their use as solvents, pollutants, and in the production of chemicals and medicines.
Environmental impact: Understanding the environmental impact of alcohols, ethers, and thiols, including their toxicity, biodegradability, and role in greenhouse gas emissions.
Mechanisms and reaction pathways: Understanding the mechanisms and reaction pathways involved in the synthesis and chemical reactions of alcohols, ethers, and thiols.
Alcohols: Alcohols are organic compounds that contain a hydroxyl (-OH) group bonded to a carbon atom. Alcohols can be classified as primary, secondary, or tertiary based on the number of alkyl groups that are attached to the carbon atom bonded to the hydroxyl group. Methanol and ethanol are examples of simple alcohols, while longer chain alcohols such as propanol and butanol are also common.
Ethers: Ethers are organic compounds that contain an oxygen atom that is bonded to two carbon atoms. The two carbon atoms can be part of the same molecule or different molecules. Ethers are generally less reactive than alcohols, and can be used as solvents and anesthetics. Diethyl ether is a common example.
Thiols: Thiols are organic compounds that contain a sulfhydryl (-SH) group bonded to a carbon atom. Thiols are structurally similar to alcohols, but are generally less polar and more odoriferous. Thiols are commonly found in natural products such as garlic and onions, and are used in chemical synthesis as reducing agents. Methanethiol and ethanethiol are common examples.
"Same functional group will undergo the same or similar chemical reactions regardless of the rest of the molecule's composition."
"Functional group interconversion can be used in retrosynthetic analysis to plan organic synthesis."
"The atoms in a functional group are linked to each other and to the rest of the molecule by covalent bonds."
"For repeating units of polymers, functional groups attach to their nonpolar core of carbon atoms and thus add chemical character to carbon chains."
"Functional groups can also be charged, e.g. in carboxylate salts (–COO−), which turns the molecule into a polyatomic ion or a complex ion."
"Functional groups binding to a central atom in a coordination complex are called ligands."
"Complexation and solvation are also caused by specific interactions of functional groups."
"In the common rule of thumb 'like dissolves like', it is the shared or mutually well-interacting functional groups which give rise to solubility."
"Sugar dissolves in water because both share the hydroxyl functional group (–OH) and hydroxyls interact strongly with each other."
"When functional groups are more electronegative than atoms they attach to, the functional groups will become polar, and the otherwise nonpolar molecules containing these functional groups become polar and so become soluble in some aqueous environment."
"Combining the names of functional groups with the names of the parent alkanes generates what is termed a systematic nomenclature for naming organic compounds."
"The first carbon atom after the carbon that attaches to the functional group is called the alpha carbon."
"IUPAC conventions call for numeric labeling of the position, e.g. 4-aminobutanoic acid."
"In traditional names various qualifiers are used to label isomers, for example, isopropanol (IUPAC name: propan-2-ol) is an isomer of n-propanol (propan-1-ol)."
"A functional group is a group of atoms in a molecule with distinctive chemical properties, regardless of the other atoms in the molecule. A moiety is an entire 'half' of a molecule, which can be not only a single functional group, but also a larger unit consisting of multiple functional groups."
"For example, an 'aryl moiety' may be any group containing an aromatic ring, regardless of how many functional groups the said aryl has."
"This enables systematic prediction of chemical reactions and behavior of chemical compounds and the design of chemical synthesis."
"The reactivity of a functional group can be modified by other functional groups nearby."
"The same functional group will undergo the same or similar chemical reactions regardless of the rest of the molecule's composition. This enables systematic prediction of chemical reactions and behavior of chemical compounds and the design of chemical synthesis."