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Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry — Class 11 Maharashtra HSC Chemistry revision notes

A 6-page visual revision sheet for Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry, written for Class 11 Maharashtra HSC Chemistry. Formulas, diagrams and the traps that cost marks, laid out to be read the night before rather than the term before. Free, and it opens inside CapCompass.

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Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry in one look

how a molecule is drawn, named, classified, and how its bonds break

Ways to draw the same molecule

  • dash formula: every atom and every covalent bond shown as a line
  • e.g. CH_4 as four separate C-H dashes
  • condensed formula: bonds hidden, identical groups collapsed with a subscript, e.g. ethane as CH_3CH_3
  • bond-line (zig-zag) formula: carbon and hydrogen symbols dropped entirely
  • each line end or kink is a carbon, hydrogens fill up to tetravalency
  • a heteroatom, or any hydrogen bonded to one, is still written out

Drawing in three dimensions

  • wedge formula: a solid wedge comes up out of the paper, toward the reader
  • a dashed wedge goes back, a plain line lies in the plane of the paper
  • Fischer projection: the main chain is drawn vertical
  • horizontal bonds come toward the reader, vertical bonds go back, used mainly for carbohydrates
  • Newman projection: sighting straight down a C-C bond
  • the front carbon is a dot, three bonds from its centre
  • the rear carbon is a circle, three bonds from its rim
  • sawhorse (perspective) formula: the C-C bond is one long slanted line
  • front carbon at the lower end, rear carbon at the upper end
  • three bonds fan out from each carbon

Classifying by carbon skeleton

  • acyclic (aliphatic): an open chain, straight or branched, no ring, e.g. propane
  • cyclic compounds split into homocyclic (carbocyclic), a ring of only carbon
  • and heterocyclic, a ring containing a heteroatom (O, N, S)
  • homocyclic splits again: alicyclic behaves like an open chain, e.g. cyclohexene
  • aromatic has benzene's special stabilised ring
  • aromatic rings are benzenoid if they contain an actual benzene ring, e.g. naphthalene, phenol
  • or non-benzenoid if they share benzene's stability without one, e.g. tropone

Saturated carbons, by how many carbons they touch

Primary, 1°
bonded to exactly one other carbon
Secondary, 2°
bonded to two other carbons
Tertiary, 3°
bonded to three other carbons
Quaternary, 4°
bonded to four other carbons, e.g. the centre of neopentane

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