Carbon Compounds

Carbon Compounds Since ancient times people have known that various substances can be produced from living things. The Ancient Egyptians were familiar with formaldehyde, a preservative produced by ants. The Mesopotamians were also familiar with coloring substances from Mollusca animals. In 1780, a person named Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742 - 1786) distinguished compounds into two groups, namely: 1. Organic compounds, are compounds produced by living things. 2. Inorganic compounds, are compounds produced by inanimate matter. Meanwhile in 1807, Jons Jacob Berzelius (1779 – 1848) stated the vis vitalis theory, namely that organic compounds could only be made in the bodies of living things with the help of the vital force (vis vitalis), so according to him it was impossible for organic compounds to be made in laboratories using inorganic compounds. Until the 19th century, these two theories were still held because no organic compound had ever been made in a laboratory. Until then Friederich Wohler (1800 – 1882) who was also a student of Berzelius managed to overthrow the previous theory, after he succeeded in synthesizing organic compounds. The compound is urea (which is usually produced from the urine of living things) using inorganic substances, namely by reacting silver cyanate with ammonium chloride to form ammonium cyanate. AgOCN + NH4 Cl NH4 OCN + AgCl It turned out that when the ammonium cyanate was evaporated to obtain its crystals, on prolonged heating, ammonium cyanate turns into urea. NH4 OCN (NH2 )2 CO Urea Since then, many organic substances have been synthesized using these substances inorganics in the laboratory. With Wohler's success in synthesizing urea from ammonium cyanate, scientists then distinguished carbon compounds into organic carbon compounds and inorganic carbon compounds. Testing the Presence of C, H, and O Elements in Carbon Compounds In the body of living things there is the element carbon. This can be proven simply by burning materials that come from living things, such as wood, rice, and meat. When burned, these materials will become charcoal (carbon). The existence of carbon and hydrogen in organic compounds can also be determined by simple experiments, as shown in the figure below. Material + CuO (oxidizer) CO2 (g) + H2 O(l) Test for the presence of CO2 : CO2 (g) + Ca(OH)2 (aq) ÿÿÿ CaCO3 (s) + H2 O(l) Lime water) Test for the presence of H2 O: H2 O(l) + cobalt blue paper pink cobalt paper The presence of oxygen atoms is not specifically indicated, but is done by finding the difference in the mass of the sample with the total mass of carbon + hydrogen + other elements