Compounds That Are Not Organic Despite Having Carbon

Compounds that are not organic despite having carbon

Carbon is a fundamental bioecement for interaction between biotic and abiotic beings guaranteeing to meet the different needs of living beings. Due to its importance, each living being is surrounded by a number of chemical compounds that is the union of two or more the elements through chemical links, whether ionic or covalent. Within this large group we find organic and inorganic chemical compounds that fulfill different functions but its main objective is to provide balance in the environment. Despite the differences that may exist between this division, certain characteristics share that in previous years it was not admitted since it was believed in a vital force that was typical of living organisms and this did not allow to create any relationship between both compounds. However, chemistry progressed by discarding theories and establishing new knowledge through experimentation and thus understand how carbon is present in everything. Several chemicals intervened for the immediate response to the speculation about the element in question.

To understand why chemical compounds were separated and characterized by certain properties, they date back to the 18. However, the inexplicable about obtaining substances from living and mineral sources was part of the day to day where chemists tried to give solutions. It was thought that compounds derived from plants and animals could not be isolated and purified because if composition was more complex compared to stone compounds.

Soon, Torbern Bergman was the pioneer in identifying an organic compound of an inorganic defining the first as the study of the compounds of living beings. For years the chemicals assumed that organic compounds could not be elaborated or manipulated in a laboratory compared to inorganic compounds, also that they produced compounds of the same classification. But in 1816, the vitalism that resided at that time was questioned when the chemist Michel Chevreul discovered that from an alkali with animal fat you could obtain pure organic compounds, calling it fatty acid. Because of this reaction, the vital force could be rejected, since the organic substance became another without intervention of this theory, as shown in the following equation (Fig 1). After some time, the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler in 1828 revealed that it is possible. Again, the vitalist belief was affected when William Brande indicated that organic compounds cannot be defined without taking into account inorganic compounds because both are correlated. It is at this point where these types of compounds were giving them meaning, organic chemistry was delimited by carbon where each compound that has this element will also together with other elements such as hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (n) and in less phosphorus (P) and sulfur (s), their main characteristics being: the prevailing link is the covalent, they are soluble in organic compounds such as benzene, they do not have electrical conductivity when they are dissolved, they have low melting pointsOr boiling, its stability is low therefore its decomposition is easy, its reaction rate is slow, the most representative examples are: oil, gasoline, DNA molecules, sugars such as glucose, lipids such as fatty acids, proteins, alcoholsAmong others, in these compounds carbon can acquire any oxidation state between 0 and 4+.

On the contrary, the inorganic ones are composed of most elements of the periodic table, among their characteristics we have: ionic link, their solubility is high in polar solvents such as water (H2O), they have high conductivity when they are dissolved, you have high pointsFusion or boiling, their decomposition is not easy because they are very stable, they form simple structures, their reactions are almost instantaneous, the examples that meet these characteristics are: sodium chloride (NaCl), hydrochloric acid (HCl), water (H2O), ammonia (NH3), potassium iodide (Ki), silver chloride (AGCL). Even in these compounds an element is shared that is also found in organic ones and that are essential in their composition, it is about carbon. Although it was previously believed that carbon is clearly characteristic of organic compounds, this was discarded when finding compounds that are inorganic despite having carbon, these exceptions were part of inorganic chemistry.

Then, carbon is present in inorganic compounds but in smaller quantity. This peculiarity is due to the fact that carbon has other characteristics because the structures of these compounds do not include a carbon-carbon bond as it presents the CO2 carbon dioxide structures (see in Fig 3.) and car caron monoxide (see in Fig 4.) In the first example, carbon works with 4+ as an oxidation state and in the second example with 2+, resulting in such compounds.

In summary, living organisms are found surrounded by carbon from the outermost as the atmosphere to the most internal of the human being as cells. This element is transcendental in processes that support the life of organisms using organic compounds as a greater source of energy for example the metabolism that is the physical, chemical and biological transformations to produce necessary energy that will be used for the best functioning of the organism. As in every basis, chemistry has exceptions that over time were developing and answering what was doubtful, in this aspect the carbon fulfilled characteristics and not only in organic compounds, it did so in the same way in inorganic compoundsAlthough this was less usual. It is fascinating as an element, an atom that is the smallest fundamental unit of matter is capable of forming structures and providing qualities that benefit the environment, is in the least we can imagine, is part of the 3 main classes offoods that are: carbohydrates, lipids and proteins. It is even in cleaning materials such as soaps, detergents, disinfectants, perfumes, cosmetics, etc. Carbon has had a relevant scope for social and technological advances, the greatest examples are: fuels such as coal and oil, plastics, natural and synthetic fibers, agrochemical products such as fertilizers and herbicides, color such as natural paintings and dyes. It is important to know what carbon, its significance provides us and how it can somehow affect the sustainability of the Earth.

References

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