Organic Compounds | Inorganic Compounds | |
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Based on source (Older definition) | Compounds isolated directly or indirectly from living organisms such as plants and animals were earlier called Organic compounds(based on the Vital Force Theory). | Compounds isolated from non-living sources were previously called Inorganic compounds. |
Examples | Urea, sugars, oils, fats, dyes, proteins, vitamins, etc. | Common salt, marble, alums, niter, blue and green vitriols, etc. |
Study | The branch of chemistry which dealt with the study of organic compounds was called Organic Chemistry. | The branch of chemistry which dealt with the study of inorganic compounds was called Inorganic Chemistry. |
Downfall | With the downfall of the Vital Force Theory, the term organic (related to life) lost its significance. However, it was shown that all organic compounds, whether natural or synthetic, essentially contained carbon and hydrogen and occasionally a few other elements like oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, halogen, and phosphorus. |
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Modern Definition | Organic compounds are now defined as those containing hydrogen and one or more additional elements like oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, halogen, and phosphorus, and their study is organic chemistry. | Inorganic chemistry is now defined as the chemistry of all elements other than carbon and their compounds. |
Exceptions | Some carbon compounds, such as CO, CO2, H2CO3, metal carbonyls, metal carbonates, carbides, cyanides, etc., which one might expect to be part of organic chemistry, are studied under inorganic chemistry because of their greater resemblance to inorganic compounds. |
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Specifically speaking | Organic compounds made of only carbon and hydrogens are called hydrocarbons. All organic compounds derived from these hydrocarbons by replacing one or more hydrogen atoms with other atoms are their derivates. Therefore, organic chemistry is accurately defined as the chemistry of hydrocarbons and their derivatives. | Inorganic chemistry is the study of compounds that do not contain carbon-hydrogen atoms. This includes metals, minerals, allotropes of carbon, and organometallic compounds. |
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