Organic Hydrocarbon Fundamentals

📋 Course Outline

1. History of Organic Chemistry
2. Structural Representations
3. Hydrocarbons and Classification
4. Alkanes and Homologous Series
5. Physical Properties of Alkanes
6. Alkane Nomenclature
7. Benzene and Aromatic Compounds
8. Natural Sources of Hydrocarbons
9. Petroleum Fractions and Octane Rating
10. Cracking and Coal Distillation

📖 1. History of Organic Chemistry

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Vitalism theory : Vitalism was the nineteenth-century idea that only living organisms could produce organic compounds using a vital force.
• Wöhler urea synthesis : Wöhler’s 1828 result showed that urea could be made in a lab from an inorganic starting material, ammonium cyanate.
• Catenation : Catenation is the ability of atoms of the same element to bond to each other, forming chains and rings.
• Organic chemistry definition : Organic chemistry is the study of carbon compounds except the oxides of carbon, carbonates, hydrogen carbonates, cyanides, and cyanates.

📝 Essential Points