The fundamental premise of chemistry is that all matter consists of molecules. The physical and chemical properties of matter are those of the constituent molecules, and the transformation of matter into different materials (compounds) is the result of their reactions to form new molecules. A molecule consists of two or more atoms held in a relatively fixed array via valence-electron orbital overlap (covalent bonds; chemical bonds). In the nineteenth century chemists focused on the remarkable diversity of molecules produced by living organisms, which have in common the presence of tetravalent carbon atoms. As a result the unique versatility of carbon for the design and synthesis of new molecules was discovered, and the subdiscipline of organic chemistry (the science of carbon-containing molecules) has become the dominant part of the discipline. Clearly, the results from a focus on carbon-based chemistry have been immensely useful to science and to society. Although most molecules in biological systems [and produced by living organisms (particularly aerobic systems)] contain oxygen atoms as well as carbon and hydrogen (e.g., proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, hormones, and vitamins), there has been a long tradition in all of chemistry to treat oxygen atoms as “neutral counterweights” for the “important,” character-determining elements (C, H, Al, Si, Fe, I) of the molecule. Thus, chemists have tended to take the most important element (oxygen) for granted. The chemistry curriculum devotes one or two year-courses to the chemistry of carbon (“Organic Chemistry”), but only a brief chapter on oxygen is included in the first-year and the inorganic courses. However, if the multitude of hydrocarbon molecules is from the incorporation of oxygen atoms in single-carbon molecules argues against the assignment of a “neutral character” for oxygen atoms [e.g., Cn(graphite), CH4(g), CH3OH(1), CH2(O)(1), HC(O)OH(1), (HO)2C(O)(aq), CO(g), CO2(g)]. Just as the focus of nineteenth century chemists on carbon-containing molecules has produced revolutionary advances in chemical understanding, and yielded the technology to synthesize and produce useful chemicals, polymers, and medicinals; I believe that a similar focus on oxygen chemistry is appropriate and will have analogous rewards for chemistry, biochemistry, and the chemical process technologies.
Teaching Discussion of the Organic Chemistry Curriculum for Environmental Engineering Major
