How can i tell if certain chemicals are organic or inorganic?

Question

On my chem homework it gives me a list of 25 chemicals. I read the whole chapter twice and it never specifically says if there is a way to know if they are organic or inorganic.It just gives me their formula.

such as...

sulfuric acid

nitrogen

oxygen

ethylene

calcium oxide

ammonia

sodium hydroxide

... and so on

i think they all might be organic but im not sure?

Answer 1

You should just consult Wikipedia for this sort of question... and possibly Google if you want to verify the information of Wikipedia (anyone can edit Wikipedia!).

Anyway, according to Wikipedia, which also coincides with my general knowledge from chemistry classes: An organic compound is any compound which contains Carbon atoms.

Eh I checked the Wikipedia article on Acid, but I'm not sure if that's really a good beginners way to learn it, since that seems to be like one of those things which they decided was the definition after some inconsistencies popped up.

Anyway, basically, any Anion (ions with a little - or 2- or 3- on the top; check your Valency Table!) that have an H attached to it, should be an acid.

Remember, that if an anion has a charge of 2- (for example), then it can have more than one H on it.

For example Sulfuric Acid is the anion Sulphate, SO4(2-), with 2 Hs on it: H2SO4

Hydrochloric Acid is simply Cl- (Chlorine ion) with 1 H: HCl

A very simple and incomplete (good for learning the ions though) valency table can be found here:

http://www.docbrown.info/page12/gifs/Ion...

Answer 2

it's simple. an organic chemical needs to have a Carbon (C) atom in it's structure... that's what renders it "organic".. so all the chemicals which was given to you, you simply look for a carbon atom and if there's none, it's definitely inorganic.

take for example ethylene.. ethylene is an organic hydrocarbon..

while sodium hydroxide is as we know, a very strong alkali, and also very inorganic because it lacks the carbon atom to render it organic..

if you wnt to find out which of the chemicals are acids, since you're given the chemical formula, acids usually has an "H" in front of their molecular formula.. like H2SO4(sulfuric acid), HCl(hydrochloric) and HC2H3O2(acetic acid)..

in case you're asked what among the chemicals are alkalis/bases, they have a hydroxide group attached to the end of their molecular formula.. like NaOH (sodium hydroxide), KOH (potassium hydroxide), BaOH(barium hydroxide) and so on..

hope this helps

Answer 3

To some extent,  the definition of what is "organic" vs. "inorganic" becomes philosophical.

However,  as a practical matter,  my definition of what is "organic" are those compounds which contain carbon and particularly one or more carbon-carbon bonds.   Then,  there are a certain number of single carbon compounds which are "organic" because they contain bonding similar to compounds with carbon-carbon bonds.   Those would include methane (CH4),  carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), etc.

The other way to look at it is to say everything is "organic" which contains carbon with a small number of exceptions.   Those exceptions are Carbon Dioxide (CO2),  carbon monoxide (CO),  carbonate (CO3 -2).   There may be some other exceptions but I can't think of any at the moment.  Other possible exceptions are diamond (an allotrope of carbon) and graphite (another allotrope of carbon).   Whether diamond and graphite are organic can be a matter of debate.

As far as which are acids,  the only one on your list which is an acid is sulfuric acid.   Calcium oxide,  sodium hydroxide and ammonia are basic.  Nitrogen, oxygen and ethylene are neither acidic nor basic.

If you want to list all 25 with your best answer as to whether they are organic or inorganic and whether they are acidic or not,  I'll be happy to comment for you.