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organic chemistry
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   Also found in: Medical, Acronyms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
organic chemistry, branch of chemistry Organic chemistry is most simply defined as the study of the compounds of carbon.

Inorganic chemistry is the study of chemical elements and their compounds (with the exception of carbon compounds).
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 dealing with the compounds of carbon. While it is only the fourteenth most common element on earth, carbon forms by far the greatest number of different compounds. Organic chemistry is of vital importance to the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and textile industries, where a prime concern is the synthesis of new organic molecules and polymers polymer (pŏl`əmər)
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. Compounds containing only hydrogen and carbon, of which there are many thousands, are called hydrocarbons hydrocarbon (hī'drōkär`bən), any organic compound composed solely of the elements hydrogen and carbon.
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; the simplest is methane methane (mĕth`ān), CH4, colorless, odorless, gaseous saturated hydrocarbon; the simplest alkane .
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 (CH4). In general, a particular type of organic compound, such as an alcohol alcohol, any of a class of organic compounds with the general formula R-OH, where R represents an alkyl group made up of carbon and hydrogen in various proportions and -OH represents one or more hydroxyl groups .
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, aldehyde aldehyde (ăl`dəhīd) [alcohol + New Lat.
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, ether ether, any of a number of organic compounds whose molecules contain two hydrocarbon groups joined by single bonds to an oxygen atom. The most common of these compounds is ethyl ether, CH3CH2OCH2CH3
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, or ketone ketone (kē`tōn), any of a class of organic compounds that contain the carbonyl group , C=O, and in which the carbonyl group is
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, is identified by the presence of a characteristic functional group functional group, in organic chemistry, group of atoms within a molecule that is responsible for certain properties of the molecule and reactions in which it takes part.
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 of atoms. The functional group is the part of the molecule most responsible for its particular chemical nature. Organic compounds containing nitrogen are of great importance in biochemistry biochemistry, science concerned chiefly with the chemistry of biological processes; it attempts to utilize the tools and concepts of chemistry, particularly organic and physical chemistry, for elucidation of the living system.
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. They generally contain the amine group (NH2). Molecules containing both the NH2 and COOH groups are called amino acids amino acid (əmē`nō)
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 and are the building blocks of proteins.

organic chemistry

The molecular science that deals primarily with materials constructed of carbon and hydrogen atoms. See organic compound.


organic chemistry
the branch of chemistry concerned with the compounds of carbon: originally confined to compounds produced by living organisms but now extended to include man-made substances based on carbon, such as plastics

organic chemistry [ȯr′gan·ik ′kem·ə·strē]
(chemistry)
The study of the structure, preparation, properties, and reactions of carbon compounds.


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