Organic Chemistry Homework Help

About Organic Chemistry

Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds, and it is far more systematic than it first looks: a handful of functional groups, a naming system, and a set of reactions that repeat across families. The questions here are mostly naming and drawing structures, isomers, homologous series, and the conversions that take one functional group to another.

Popular topics in Organic Chemistry

• Alkanes, Alkenes & Alkynes

  General formulae, saturation, addition and substitution reactions, and testing for unsaturation with bromine water.

• IUPAC Naming

  Choosing the parent chain, numbering to give lowest locants, prefixes and suffixes, and naming branched compounds.

• Functional Groups

  Alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, amines and amides, and how each is recognised.

• Isomerism

  Chain, position and functional group isomerism, geometric (cis-trans) isomers, and drawing all isomers of a formula.

• Homologous Series

  What members of a series share, the trend in physical properties, and predicting the next member.

• Reaction Mechanisms

  Nucleophiles and electrophiles, addition, substitution, elimination and the conditions each needs.

• Polymers

  Addition and condensation polymerisation, monomers and repeat units, and the properties of common plastics.

• Alcohols & Esters

  Oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols, esterification, hydrolysis, and the smell and uses of esters.

How ScanSolve helps with Organic Chemistry

Photograph a structure and ScanSolve names it step by step — longest chain, numbering direction, substituents in alphabetical order — so the rule being used is visible rather than assumed. For conversions it gives the reagent and the conditions, because in organic chemistry the conditions are usually where the marks are.

Isomer questions are answered systematically (chain isomers first, then position, then functional group) so nothing is missed, and structures are written in a displayed form that can be copied into an answer booklet. Where a reaction has a mechanism on the syllabus, the arrows are described in words.

Study tips for Organic Chemistry

1. 01

   Learn the functional groups with one example each. Recognition, not memory, is what organic questions test.

2. 02

   Number the chain from both ends and take the lower set of locants. Most naming errors are numbering errors.

3. 03

   Quote conditions with every reaction — concentrated or dilute, hot or cold, catalyst. A reagent without conditions is half an answer.

4. 04

   When asked for isomers, work through chain, then position, then functional group. A system finds all of them; inspiration finds most.

Frequently asked Organic Chemistry questions

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