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SAChemistry

Topic 3: Organic and Biological Chemistry

8 dot points across 8 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do monomers join to form addition and condensation polymers?

Distinguish addition and condensation polymerisation, identify monomers and repeating units, and relate polymer structure to properties.
How addition polymerisation links alkene monomers with no by-product while condensation polymerisation joins monomers with loss of a small molecule, and how to identify monomers and repeating units.
8 min answer →

How are the major biological molecules built from smaller units?

Describe the structure of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids in terms of their monomers and the bonds formed by condensation reactions.
How proteins, carbohydrates and lipids are built from amino acids, monosaccharides and fatty-acid/glycerol units through condensation reactions forming peptide, glycosidic and ester bonds.
8 min answer →

How are esters formed and broken down?

Describe the formation of esters by esterification and their breakdown by hydrolysis, writing equations and naming products.
How carboxylic acids and alcohols form esters in a reversible, acid-catalysed esterification, and how esters are split by acidic and basic hydrolysis (saponification).
7 min answer →

How do functional groups define organic families, and how can one formula give different compounds?

Identify functional groups in organic molecules and describe structural isomerism, including chain, positional and functional-group isomers.
How functional groups define organic families and determine reactivity, and how structural isomers (chain, positional and functional-group) share a molecular formula but differ in structure.
8 min answer →

How are hydrocarbons classified and named systematically?

Classify hydrocarbons as alkanes, alkenes and alkynes, and apply IUPAC nomenclature to name straight-chain and branched compounds.
How to classify alkanes, alkenes and alkynes and apply IUPAC nomenclature rules - parent chain, locants, suffixes and substituent prefixes - to name straight-chain and branched hydrocarbons.
8 min answer →

How do IR, mass spectrometry and NMR help identify an organic compound?

Interpret infrared spectra, mass spectra and proton NMR spectra to determine the structure of organic molecules.
How infrared spectroscopy identifies functional groups, mass spectrometry gives molar mass and fragments, and proton NMR reveals hydrogen environments to determine organic structure.
9 min answer →

How does the oxidation product of an alcohol depend on its class?

Describe the oxidation of primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols and the products formed.
How primary alcohols oxidise to aldehydes then carboxylic acids, secondary alcohols to ketones, and why tertiary alcohols resist oxidation, using oxidants such as acidified dichromate.
7 min answer →

How do alkenes undergo addition and haloalkanes undergo substitution?

Describe the addition reactions of alkenes and the substitution reactions of haloalkanes, writing equations and products.
How alkenes undergo addition reactions across the C=C double bond and how haloalkanes undergo substitution, with equations for hydrogenation, halogenation, hydration and hydrolysis.
8 min answer →