Functional Groups with Memorization Tips

Summary

This video script offers an in-depth exploration of functional groups in organic chemistry, essential for understanding molecular reactivity. It distinguishes between functional groups and non-functional R groups, explains the significance of alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes, and delves into various functional groups like alkyl halides, amines, alcohols, thiols, ethers, ketones, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, esters, amides, nitriles, and the difference between phenols and phenyl groups. Mnemonics and tricks are provided to aid memorization, emphasizing the importance of recognizing these groups for organic chemistry reactions.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Functional groups are specific groups of atoms that determine the reactivity of organic molecules, often involving atoms with different electronegativities and pi bonds.
• 🌐 The 'R' group in organic chemistry is a placeholder for the rest of the molecule and does not represent a specific collection of atoms.
• 🔬 Carbon chains in organic molecules are categorized as Alkane (no pi bonds), Alkene (one or more double bonds), and Alkyne (triple bond), with distinct structural characteristics.
• 🧪 Alkyl Halides are compounds where a halogen is attached to a carbon chain, playing a significant role in substitution and elimination reactions.
• 🧬 Amines are organic compounds containing nitrogen bonded to carbon, with the type of amine (primary, secondary, tertiary, or quaternary) depending on the number of carbon groups attached to the nitrogen.
• 🍶 Alcohols contain a hydroxyl (OH) group attached to a carbon chain, differing in their properties and reactivity based on the carbon to which the OH group is attached.
• 🔮 Ethers are characterized by an oxygen atom bonded to two carbon groups, and can be symmetrical or asymmetrical, with cyclic ethers like THF being particularly important in organic reactions.
• 🍯 Carbonyl groups, with a double bond between carbon and oxygen, are found in various functional groups, including ketones, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, esters, and amides.
• 🍋 Carboxylic acids have a carbonyl group followed by a hydroxyl group and are distinct from alcohols due to the presence of the carbonyl group.
• 🍏 Esters result when the hydroxyl group of a carboxylic acid is replaced by an alkoxy group, and are different from ethers by the presence of the carbonyl group.
• 🌿 Phenol is a benzene ring with a hydroxyl group attached, whereas Phenyl is a benzene ring as a substituent on a larger chain, highlighting the importance of distinguishing between these two.

Q & A

What is a functional group in organic chemistry?

A functional group in organic chemistry is a specific group of atoms within molecules that are responsible for the characteristic chemical reactions of those molecules. They often contain atoms with different electronegativities, different electron concentrations, and pi bonds.

Why are functional groups important in organic chemistry?

Functional groups are important because they determine the reactivity of molecules and are key to understanding the structure and behavior of organic compounds in various chemical reactions.

What is an R group and how does it differ from a functional group?

An R group is a symbol used in organic chemistry to represent any alkyl or aryl group or any other organic substituent. Unlike functional groups, it does not represent a specific collection of atoms and does not confer specific chemical properties to the molecule.

What are the differences between alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes in terms of their chemical structure?

Alkanes have no pi bonds between carbon atoms, with each carbon atom single-bonded to others. Alkenes have at least one carbon-carbon double bond, while alkynes have a carbon-carbon triple bond. The hybridization and bond angles of carbon atoms differ accordingly: sp3 for alkanes, sp2 for alkenes, and sp for alkynes.

How can you identify the type of carbon chain in a molecule?

The type of carbon chain can be identified by the suffix: 'ane' for alkanes, 'ene' for alkenes, and 'yne' for alkynes. This indicates the number of pi bonds present in the carbon chain.

What is an alkyl halide and how is it named?

An alkyl halide is a compound in which a halogen atom is attached to a carbon chain. It is named by specifying the type of halogen (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine) and its position on the carbon chain (primary, secondary, or tertiary).

What are amines and how do primary, secondary, and tertiary amines differ?

Amines are compounds containing nitrogen atoms bonded to carbon atoms. Primary amines have one carbon group attached to the nitrogen, secondary amines have two, and tertiary amines have three carbon groups attached. A quaternary amine has four carbon groups attached to the nitrogen, carrying a positive charge.

How is the difference between an alcohol and a thiol determined?

The difference between an alcohol and a thiol is the atom bonded to the hydrogen in the hydroxyl group. In an alcohol, it is an oxygen atom, while in a thiol, it is a sulfur atom.

What is the structural difference between an ether and an ester?

An ether has an oxygen atom bonded to two carbon groups (R-O-R'), whereas an ester has a carbonyl group (C=O) bonded to an oxygen atom and another carbon group (R-CO2R').

How can you distinguish a carboxylic acid from an alcohol?

A carboxylic acid is characterized by a carbonyl group (C=O) bonded to a hydroxyl group (OH), whereas an alcohol has a hydroxyl group (OH) bonded to a carbon atom without a preceding carbonyl group.

What is the difference between a phenol and a phenyl group?

A phenol is a benzene ring with a hydroxyl group (OH) attached, while a phenyl group is a benzene ring as a substituent in a larger molecule, without the hydroxyl group.

How can you remember the difference between various functional groups that contain oxygen?

The key is to recognize how oxygen is attached to the parent chain. For instance, in alcohols, the oxygen is part of a hydroxyl group (OH), in ethers, it is bonded to two carbon groups (R-O-R'), and in esters, it is part of a carbonyl group bonded to another carbon group (R-CO2R').

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Introduction to Functional Groups

This paragraph introduces the concept of functional groups in organic chemistry, emphasizing their role in determining the reactivity of molecules composed mainly of carbon and hydrogen. It explains that functional groups are specific groups of atoms with different electronegativities and electron configurations that confer unique chemical properties to the molecules they are part of. The paragraph also distinguishes between functional groups and R groups, the latter being a non-specific placeholder for the remainder of a molecule. Additionally, it touches on carbon chain types, such as alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes, which are differentiated by the number of pi bonds present between carbon atoms.

05:00

🔍 Exploring Amines, Alcohols, and Thiols

The second paragraph delves into the classification of amines based on the number of carbon atoms to which nitrogen is bound, resulting in primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary amines. It also introduces alcohols, characterized by the presence of a hydroxyl (OH) group attached to a carbon, and their classification according to the carbon's position in the molecule. Thiols are presented as sulfur analogs of alcohols, with the sulfur atom replacing the oxygen in the hydroxyl group. The paragraph highlights the importance of recognizing these functional groups for understanding various organic reactions.

10:01

🔗 Understanding Ethers, Esters, and Epoxides

This paragraph focuses on ether functional groups, which consist of an oxygen atom bonded to two carbon groups, and can be either symmetrical or asymmetrical. It also introduces the concept of cyclic ethers, specifically highlighting tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a common example. Epoxides are discussed as a special type of cyclic ether with a three-membered ring including two carbons and one oxygen atom. The paragraph clarifies the structural differences between ethers and esters, with esters being derived from carboxylic acids with the hydroxyl group replaced by an alkoxy group.

15:03

📚 Carbonyl Compounds: Ketones, Aldehydes, and Carboxylic Acids

The fourth paragraph discusses carbonyl compounds, starting with ketones, which have a carbonyl group (C=O) bonded to two carbon-containing groups. Aldehydes are similar but have the carbonyl group bonded to a hydrogen atom at one end, distinguishing them from ketones. Carboxylic acids are characterized by a carbonyl group bonded to a hydroxyl group, forming a new functional group distinct from alcohols. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of understanding the structural and functional differences between these carbonyl-containing compounds.

20:06

🌿 Derivatives of Carboxylic Acids: Esters, Amides, and Nitriles

This paragraph explores derivatives of carboxylic acids, beginning with esters, which are formed by replacing the hydroxyl group of a carboxylic acid with an alkoxy group. Amides are introduced as nitrogen-containing compounds formed by replacing the hydroxyl group with an amine group. Nitriles are highlighted as compounds containing a carbon-nitrogen triple bond, often derived from cyanic acid. The paragraph also clarifies the difference between phenol, a benzene ring with an alcohol group, and phenyl, a benzene ring as a substituent in larger molecules.

📘 Conclusion and Additional Resources

The final paragraph concludes the script by summarizing the importance of recognizing and understanding functional groups in organic chemistry. It encourages viewers to engage with the content through likes and comments and directs them to the speaker's website for additional resources, including a functional group cheat sheet and a practice quiz. The paragraph emphasizes the utility of mnemonic devices for memorizing the various functional groups and their characteristics.

Keywords

💡Functional Group

A functional group is a specific group of atoms within a molecule that is responsible for the characteristic chemical reactions of that molecule. In the context of the video, functional groups such as alcohols, amines, and esters are discussed to illustrate how they contribute to the reactivity and properties of organic compounds. The script emphasizes the importance of recognizing different functional groups for understanding organic chemistry.

💡Isomers

Isomers are molecules that have the same molecular formula but different structural arrangements of atoms. The script mentions that complex structures and many isomers can arise from just carbons and hydrogens, highlighting the diversity of organic molecules that can be formed from a limited set of elements.

💡Electronegativity

Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons. The video script discusses how functional groups often contain atoms with different electronegativities, which influences the molecule's reactivity and the nature of the chemical bonds within it.

💡R Group

The R group is a placeholder used in organic chemistry to represent any alkyl or aryl group attached to a central atom. The script clarifies that the R group is not a functional group itself but indicates the rest of the molecule that is not the focus of a particular discussion, such as when analyzing an ester.

💡Alkane

An alkane is a type of hydrocarbon with the general formula CnH2n+2, characterized by single bonds between carbon atoms and no double or triple bonds. The script explains that alkanes have no pi bonds and that each carbon is sp3 hybridized, resulting in a tetrahedral geometry.

💡Alkene

An alkene is a hydrocarbon containing at least one carbon-carbon double bond. The video script describes alkenes as having a 'ene' ending and illustrates their structure with a double bond represented by two lines between carbon atoms, indicating the presence of a sigma and a pi bond.

💡Alkyne

An alkyne is a hydrocarbon with at least one carbon-carbon triple bond. The script explains that alkynes have a 'yne' ending and are characterized by a linear arrangement of atoms due to the sp hybridization of the carbons involved in the triple bond.

💡Halogen

Halogens are elements found in Group 17 of the periodic table, including fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. The video script discusses halogens in the context of alkyl halides, where a halogen atom is attached to a hydrocarbon, forming a functional group that plays a significant role in substitution and elimination reactions.

💡Amines

Amines are organic compounds derived from ammonia by replacing one or more hydrogen atoms with alkyl or aryl groups. The script explains the different types of amines, such as primary, secondary, and tertiary, based on the number of carbon groups attached to the nitrogen atom.

💡Alcohol

An alcohol is an organic compound with a hydroxyl (-OH) functional group. The video script defines alcohols by the presence of the hydroxyl group attached to a carbon chain and distinguishes primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols based on the carbon to which the hydroxyl group is attached.

💡Ester

An ester is a compound formed from the reaction of an acid and an alcohol where the hydroxyl group (-OH) of the acid is replaced by an alkoxy group. The script explains that esters have the general formula RCO2R', where R and R' represent alkyl or aryl groups, and highlights the difference between esters and ethers.

Highlights

Functional groups are specific groups of atoms that make molecules reactive in organic chemistry.

R groups represent the rest of the molecule and do not specify a collection of atoms.

Alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes differ by the number of carbon-to-carbon pi bonds they contain.

Alkyl halides are identified by the presence of halogens attached to a carbon chain.

Amines are characterized by nitrogen atoms bound to carbons, with primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary types.

Alcohols contain a hydroxyl (OH) group attached to a carbon chain.

Thiols are similar to alcohols but with a sulfur atom replacing the oxygen in the hydroxyl group.

Ethers have an oxygen atom between two carbon groups, forming an R-O-R structure.

Epoxides are three-membered cyclic ethers with high reactivity.

Ketones have a carbonyl group (C=O) in the middle of a carbon chain with R-groups on both sides.

Aldehydes differ from ketones by having a hydrogen atom at the end of the carbonyl group.

Carboxylic acids are characterized by a carbonyl group directly attached to a hydroxyl group (OH).

Esters are derived from carboxylic acids with an OR group replacing the OH.

Amides are similar to carboxylic acids but with an NH2 group replacing the OH.

Nitriles contain a carbon triple bond to a nitrogen (C≡N) on the carbon chain.

Phenols are benzene ring alcohols, while phenyl groups are benzene rings as substituents in larger molecules.

Mnemonics and tricks are provided to help memorize and distinguish between different functional groups.

Transcripts

So what is a Functional Group? In Organic Chemistry you'll see a lot of molecules that

are made up of carbons and hydrogens. You can get many complex structures and many isomers

from just carbons and hydrogens. Before molecule to be reactive it tends to have other atoms

with different electronegativities, different electrons, concentrations, pi bonds. Those

specific groups, those are your functional groups.

Now before we go into Functional Groups, I want to talk about one type of group that

you'll see that's not functional group at all and that's the R group. As we look into

your textbook you'll see molecules that has carbons, oxygens, nitrogens, and an R group.

But an R group does not represent a specific collection of atoms, instead the R group tells

you what you have on the rest of the molecule. For example, if I'm looking at this structure

here, but then I have a complex group of a C double bound O, single bound O, single bound

to another C with three hydrogens and I specifically want to focus on this portion of the molecule.

I don't want to look at the carbon chain, it's not my priority for this discussion.

So instead of reading this entire molecule and the group that I boxed off, I'll turn

the entire purple portion in R for the rest of the molecule, and then simply focus on

the ester here which is a CO2CH3. R is the rest of the molecule that I don't want to

focus on right now but I still acknowledge that it's there. When talking about functional

groups, you'll typically see R-functional group to show that it can come up at any type

of molecule.

Another thing to discuss before we go into Functional Groups are the type of carbon chains

that you're going to see specifically the Alkane, Alkene, and Alkyne. Notice the ending

Alkane is "ane", Alkene is "ene",Alkyne is "yne". And this tells you the number of pi

bonds specifically carbon to carbon pi bonds that you're going to see. An Alkane has no

pi bonds between carbon atoms, that means every atom is single bound to another carbon.

You'll see this drawn out in line structure as a zigzag where every carbon is sp3 hybridized

with an ideal bond angle of 109.5 degrees. An Alkene is a molecule that has at least

one double bond between carbon atoms.You'll see that as carbon double bound to carbon

where the first bond is the sigma and that's with your hybridized orbitals and the second

is a pi bond sitting in the p-orbitals. In line structure, it'll look the same as your

alkane except that you'll see a second line representing the pi bond. You can have more

than one double bond on a molecule as long as they're different carbon atoms that have

the pi bond so that each is still considered a double bond. The carbons holding the double

bond are sp2 hybridized with a bond angle of 120 degrees.

And finally we have the Alkyne which is a triple bond between two carbon atoms. Notice

here we have two double bond because each individually has a double bond, but with an

Alkyne you'll see a three lines between two carbon atoms. The first is at sigma and that's

on your sp hybridized carbon, the second and third are your pi bonds sitting in p-orbitals,

one in the p y and one in the p z. Many professors will try to represent a triple bond the same

way as a double and a single in terms of a zigzag, but this is incorrect and I don't

like it. And that's because a triple bond is sp hybridized with a bond angle of 180

degrees and so the correct way to represent it is something like this. You wanna have

a linear line where the triple bonds sits between the two carbon atoms, that would be

this two right here, but the two carbon atoms or other atoms on either direction of the

triple bond are also in a straight line because of that 180-degree bond angle. Now that you

understand it, let's memorize it. I have to memorize as 1, 2, 3, ane, ene, yne. Ane is

one, single bond, ene is two, double bond, yne is three, triple bond.

The first and simplest functional group we'll look at is the Alkyl Halide or the Haloalkene.

Recall from general chemistry that group 7 on the periodic table are your halogens or

your halides, that's where we get the alkyl halide and these are Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine,

and Iodine, in that order going down the group. If you have a carbon chain with any halogen

attached to, that is considered an Alkyl Halide or a haloalkane and you just insert the name

of the halogen to be more specific. So for example, if I put a Chlorine on the primary

carbon here, I will get a primary Alkyl Chloride or Chloroalkane or simply a primary alkyl

halide. If I place Iodine on the secondary carbon, I get a secondary Alkyl Halide. If

you're comfortable identifying your Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary carbons, make sure

you study my Pencil Trick Tutorial linked on the description below. And if I place a

Fluorine on a tertiary carbon I get a tertiary halogen or a tertiary alkyl halide. These

are very important to understand and recognize because they will play a big role in the reactions

moving forward especially substitution and elimination reactions.

The next functional groups I want to look up are the Amines which have n in the word

where n stands for the Nitrogen atom. An Amine is a molecule that has Nitrogen bound to Carbon

and this could be bound to a 1, 2 ,3 or 4 carbons to give you a different type of Amine.

To show you the different types of Amines, we'll use R to represent the rest of the molecule.

If I have R bound to an NH2, remember a Nitrogen can have three bonds. This is considered a

primary amine because it's bound to one R-group. If I have R bound to Nitrogen which is bound

to a second R, which we'll show as R-prime, this is considered a secondary amine because

Nitrogen is bound to two R-groups. If I have a Nitrogen bound to three R-groups, that's

R, R-prime, and R double prime. That's a tertiary amine and these are the common ones we're

going to see. But every now and then you'll see a Nitrogen bound to four R-groups that'll

be bound to R, R prime, R double prime, and R triple prime. If you'll do a quick formal

charge, you will recognize that the Quaternary Amine has a positive charge because Nitrogen

prefers to have three bonds and one lone pair. But if and when it comes out recognize that

yes a Quaternary Amine does exist. And the key to recognizing the Amine functional group,

Amine spelled with an n has the key atom Nitrogen.

Many of the remaining functional groups will have Oxygen in them and the key is to recognize

the difference between how the Oxygen is attached to the parent chain. The alcohol has COH in

a name where C can be a part of your R-group. So if you have your R-group and attached to

that you have a C, an O, and an H, that's an Alcohol where the alcohol is the OH or

Hydroxyl group. Hydroxy comes from the word Hydrogen and Oxygen. So if you see a carbon

chain with an OH on the primary carbon, that's a primary alcohol. If the OH was on the tertiary

carbon, that would be a tertiary alcohol.

A similar functional group is the Thiol which you'll notice sounds like Alcohol, it ends

in OL which is how you identify an alcohol, but the Thi portion of the molecule represents

the sulfur atom. So if we take a molecule and draw an alcohol, but now we erase the

Oxygen and replace it with a sulfur, this is a sulfur alcohol or simply a Thiol. Recall

that sulfur sits on the Oxygen on the periodic table so they have very similar binding ability.

The next group I want to look at is the Ether and this is one of the first confusing functional

group. An ether is represented by R,O,R. We have an Oxygen sitting between two carbon

groups. You can have a symmetrical ether, for example if I have CH3-O-CH3, this is dimethyl

ether because I have two methyls surrounding that Oxygen. You can also have an asymmetrical

ether, for example, if I have a CH3 bound to an O, the second R-group is a CH2CH3 or

an ethyl group, this is ethyl methyl ether where the tro R-groups are different. And

in this case we have to write it as R-O-R prime. A good trick to remember the Ether

is to think of the word Either, it looks like we have R-O-R, we have either R or something

else. Ether or Ether has OR in the word. Do not confuse the Ether with an Ester which

we'll look at shortly. Ethers can exist as a linear chain like we see here, or you can

see a cyclic ether. For example if I'll show you a five numbered ring where we have four

carbon atoms and one Oxygen, this is still an ether, it's a cyclic ether, it's one that

you'll have to know later in your Organic Chemistry reactions. This is tetrahydrofuran

or THF, which comes up a lot on reactions.

You don't have to memorize the name of cyclic ether except for this one, the Epoxide. Epoxides

are very reactive and will come up a lot in Organic Chemistry so I want you to recognize

it. Epoxide is a three membered ether, we have a three atom ring, two carbons and one

Oxygen. You can have carbons or Hydrogen coming off of it but the key is the small triangle

made up of two carbons and one Oxygen giving you an epoxide. The next set of functional

groups we'll look at will have the carbonyl in common. Where carbonyl is C double bound

O. This will be very important later on because the carbonyl has resonance and that means

you get a partial positive on a carbon and a partial negative on Oxygen. But for now

we'll focus just on the structure. And since there's a pi bond between them, where the

carbon and Oxygen are sp2 hybridized with a bond angle of 120 degrees.

When you have the carbonyl in the middle of the chain, meaning the carbonyl has R-groups

on either side, you get a ketone. The way I remember this is Ketone ends in "one". A

ketone does not want to be alone, one it doesn't wanna be alone, and therefore it's surrounded

by R-groups on either side. If I wrote this out showing the atoms we would see CH3 bound

to the carbonyl, bound to the CH3 because it's in the middle, it doesn't want to be

alone. Just like the Ether, the Ketone can be symmetrical, in this case we have two methyl

groups, or it can be asymmetrical if I replace the methyl group on the right with an ethyl

group. This is also a ketone. If you see this written out, you'll see this as R carbonyl

and R or R prime depending on if the second R-group is the same or different. Or of the

pi bond are not being shown, this is R C O R. Don't mix this up with an Ether which was

just R-O-R because we have the carbon there, it's not an Oxygen in the chain, instead it's

a carbon in the chain double bound to an Oxygen atom.

Aldehydes are very similar to ketones so don't confused the two. The aldehyde also has a

functional group on a carbon chain but in the aldehyde's case it's not in the middle

of the molecule like the ketone that doesn't want to be alone. Instead, the carbonyl is

at the end of the molecule so that the last atom here is the Hydrogen. The aldehyde has

an H in the word to remind you that there is a Hydrogen in the end rather than another

carbon or another R-group. If we write this our we have CH3CH3CH2 for the propyl group,

then we'll have C double bound O for the carbonyl and H for the Aldehyde. If you want to write

this out in simple terms,it'll be R carbonyl H instead of R carbonyl, R prime like the

ketone or we can write it out even simpler, RCHO. This is another source of confusion

for students, I wanna make sure you understand. RCHO has the carbon then the hydrogen then

the Oxygen telling you that it's carbon, then bound to Hydrogen, the Hydrogen sits on the

carbon and the Oxygen has to come back and be written on the carbon. Don't confuse this

with the alcohol which we showed as RCOH, if it's O then H it's an alcohol because you

have carbon followed by Hydroxyl OH. But an aldehyde is not Hydroxy, it's HO giving you

a completely different functional group and a completely different molecule.

The next functional group I want to look at is a carboxylic acid and this is another source

of confusion for students so make sure you understand. The carboxylic acid has a carbon

chain with a carbonyl at the end. C double bound to O and then attached to that, we have

an OH. Students will look at this and think "oh! I have a carbonyl and then alcohol",

but that is not the case. Whenever you see a carbonyl directly attached to an OH, that

is not an alcohol attached to an aldehyde, that is a brand new functional group, the

carboxylic acid. If we'll write this out we have CH3CH2 for the upper portion, then the

carbonyl and OH. If we want to write this out even more simply, we can have R to represent

the ethyl group or the rest of the molecule , COOH. You'll also see it as RCO2H. We're

showing that there are two Oxygens on this functional group. One Oxygen sitting on the

carbon in a double bond, the second Oxygen sitting on the side as an OH. As you'll see

late in Organic Chemistry 2, carboxylic acids can be reactive so that the OH is swapped

for another group and those are your Carboxylic Acid derivatives giving you a whole new set

of functional groups.

The first one we'll look at is what happens when we take that OH on the carboxylic acid

and replace it with an OR. This molecule is called an Ester. For example, if we swap this

R-group for a CH3, we'll have CH3, CH2, C double bound O, single bound O, single bound

CH3, for a methyl ester, because it's a methyl sitting on the longer parent chain. If you

wanna write this out the short way, the ester is RCO2R prime. Just like a carboxylic acid

RCO2 or RCOO, but instead of a Hydrogen at the end, we have an R-group at the end. Esters

are often confused with Ethers so I want to make sure you'd see them together and understand

the difference. If we have an Ester that's R CO2 R-prime, and Ether is just R-O-R prime.

Remember for Ethers we said it's either OR, that's it. It's R and O R, nothing else. Either

R or the OR. An Ester has an S. Think of that S as standing for your second R-group. Because

Ester looks like a Carboxylic acid but it has a second R-group and then the example

we saw above that's second R-group as a methyl. One more time we have our carboxylic acid

but this time, I'm going to replace that OH with the Nitrogen. So for example if I replace

it with an NH2 I get a new functional group and this one is the Amide. Amide sounds very

much Amine, but remember the Amine, we set "n" for Nitrogen. When Nitrogen was the primary

focus on the functional group because we have just Nitrogen and carbon, R-groups, nothing

else. The Amide looks like a carboxylic acid and sounds like Amine. We'll it looks like

a carboxylic acid because it's a carboxylic acid derivative and it sounds like Amine because

we have a Nitrogen in there and the 'd" is to remind you that in addition to the Amine

portion, we also have a double bond carbon Oxygen. "D" for double bond carbon to Oxygen

on a molecule that sounds like Amine. Just like Amines, when it comes to amides, it doesn't

have to be just an NH2. We can have NH2, a simple Amide, or we can add some R-groups

in there.

For example I can put a CH3 with one Hydrogen or 2 CH3s or any R-group. I just chose methyl

with no Hydrogen, because Nitrogen remember likes 3 bonds and 1 lone pair. These are different

types of molecules that you have to recognize as an Amine. It sounds like an Amine, it looks

like an Amine, but the D reminds you that there's also a double bond carbon to Oxygen

in that same functional group. There's another Nitrogen containing another functional group

that has R and then C triple bound N. This right here is called a Nitrile, it's also

referred to as a cyano group because CN- is cyanide comes from cyanic acid. This will

come up in your Organic Chemistry reactions so make sure you do recognize it, the Nitrile

has a C triple bound to N on the carbon chain.

The last group we'll look at is not really a functional group but it comes up so often

and students mixed it up so often so I wanna make sure you're clear on the difference.

Phenol vs. Phenyl. A Phenyl and a Phenol, they kinda sound similar but a Phenol ends

in OL which tells you that it's an alcohol, right alcohol also ends in OL and Phenyl ends

in "yl". In naming Organic compounds where you have an R-group as a substituent, it ends

in yl. For example a CH3 is a methyl, a CH3CH2 is an ethyl, yl. The beginning of the word

the "phen" portion should hint benzene ring and it's simply a question of what the benzene

ring looks like. The Phenol is a benzene ring alcohol. That means we have a benzene ring,

a 6 carbon chain with alternating pi bonds and an OH attached to it. That's it! it's

not attached to a bigger chain, it doesn't have anything else coming off it. Phenol Alcohol,

but when you have just Phenyl that is the benzene ring as a substituent on a larger

chain. So we'll show instead of an alcohol, an R-group attached to it. If you have a giant

molecule with a benzene substituent,that substituent is a Phenyl, yl substituent. Not to be confused

with the Phenol which is a benzene ring alcohol.

I hope this video helps you not only understand but to look for functional groups but also

gives you couple of tricks to help you memorize them. First thing I want you to do, give this

video a thumbs up and leave a comment below letting me know if it helped you and which

mnemonic you like best then make sure you visit my website leah4sci.com/Naming so that

you can download my FREE full color functional group cheat sheet as well as try the Practice

Quiz. And then start working through the naming series showing you how to tackle each functional

group including IUPAC and Common Names. The link again is leah4sci.com/Naming.