Organic chemistry is a branch of chemistry dedicated to the study of the compounds of the element carbon, other than compounds such as carbides, carbonates and oxides of carbon such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The substances are usually catered for quite adequately in the field of inorganic chemistry.


The study of organic chemistry normally starts off with a study of some of the simpler molecules, such as simple long chain hydrocarbons, Methane, Ethane and some of the substances of which you are probably more familiar, such as Propane and Butane (the gases that you will find in your gas heater at home) and longer chain hydrocarbons that you would find in petrol such as Pentane, Hexane and so on.


As well as long chain molecules, organic chemistry deals with carbon compounds where the structures have one or more circles, the simplest of which perhaps is the benzene ring. This study of organic chemistry is known as aromatic organic chemistry, the study of the longer chain molecules is aliphatic organic chemistry.