Importance of Carbon

Annotations:

• Has 4 valence e-.

1. Carbon-containging compounds

   Annotations:

   • Stable and diverse.

Annotations:

• H, O, N, S, P, C(other carbons).
• Lighter elements are more common.

1. Strength of Covalent Bonds

   Annotations:

   • Inversely proportional to atomic weight of element involved.
2. Carbon + light elements

   Annotations:

   • Results in higher energy
3. Carbon + heavy elements

   Annotations:

   • Results in lower energy
4. Hydrocarbons

   Annotations:

   • Carbon + Hydrogen
   • Important energy molecules: Octane, decane, methane, propane. Important organic solvents too! - Hexane.
   1. Important role in membrane structure+function

      Annotations:

      • Hydrocarbon "tails".
5. 7 Functional Groups

   Annotations:

   • Negative charged ones: Carboxyl, Phosphate.
   • Positively Charged: Amino.
   • Neutral, polar ones: Hydroxyl, Sulthydryl, Carbonyl, Aldehyde
   1. Protonation/Depronation

      Annotations:

      • Reason functional groups are ionized (there is lose/gain of e-)
   2. Neutral+Polar group

      Annotations:

      • Uncharged yet generates polar bonds due to high electronegativity of oxygen and sulfur atoms.
      1. Polar Bonds/Molecules

         Annotations:

         • Has higher water solubility and chemical reactivity than that of C-C and C-H bonds.

1. 2 possible spatial configurations
   1. Stereoisomers

      Annotations:

      • Mirror-image structures w/ same chemical formula.
2. Asymmetric Carbon atom

   Annotations:

   • Never looks the same when turned any direction. Any carbon w/ 4 different substituents.
   1. Amino Acids