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Write Brief Answer · Q31

Q.Give the general characteristics of organic compounds?

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✓ Free question

Step 1. Bonding: organic compounds are covalent compounds of carbon (carbon cannot form simple ions), and are generally insoluble in water but readily soluble in organic solvents such as benzene, toluene, ether and chloroform.

Step 2. Combustibility and thermal behaviour: most organic compounds are inflammable (CCl4 is the standard exception), and, owing to their covalent (rather than ionic) bonding, they typically have comparatively low melting and boiling points.

Step 3. Functional-group-driven chemistry: organic compounds are characterised by a functional group -- an atom or specific combination of bonded atoms that reacts in a characteristic way regardless of the rest of the molecule; almost every reaction an organic compound undergoes takes place specifically at its functional group.

Step 4. Isomerism: because the same set of atoms can be connected together, or arranged in space, in more than one way, organic compounds exhibit isomerism -- a unique and defining phenomenon of the field.

Step 5. Homologous series: organic compounds sharing a functional group typically form a homologous series, a run of compounds whose successive members differ by exactly one CH2 unit, share one general formula, are preparable by common general methods, grade smoothly in physical properties, yet behave almost identically in their chemistry.

✓Final answer

Covalent, water-insoluble/organic-solvent-soluble, flammable with low mp/bp, functional-group-driven reactivity, isomerism, and homologous-series behaviour.

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