Quinones are an interesting and valuable class of compounds because of their oxidation-reduction, or redox, properties. The redox properties of quinones are important to the functioning of living cells, where compounds called ubiquinones(泛醌) act as biochemical oxidizing agents to mediate the electro-transfer processes involved in energy production

Functional groups The structural features that make it possible to classify compounds by reactivity are called functional groups. A functional group is a part of a larger molecule and is composed of an atom or a group of atoms that have a characteristic chemical behavior. The Chemistry of every organic molecules

An acid is a substance that can donate (or lose) a proton, A base is a substance that can accept (or remove) a proton

The primary source of alkanes is petroleum Natural gas consists chiefly of methane, but ethane, propane, butane, and isobutane are also present. Petroleum is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons that must be refined into different fraction before it can be used

Cycloalkanes with only one ring are named by attaching the prefix cyclo- to the names of the alkanes possessing the same number of carbon atoms

The different arrangements of atoms caused by rotation about a single bond are called conformations (构象)of the molecule, and a specific conformation is called a conformer (构象异构体, conformation isomer). An analysis of the energy changes that a molecule undergoes as groups rotate about single bonds is called a conformational analysis (构象分析)

An equimolar mixture of two enantiomers is called a racemic form (either a racemate or a racemic mixture). A racemic form shows no rotation of plane￾polarized light

Before 1951 only relative configurations of chiral molecules were known. Configurations of chiral molecules were related to each other through reactions of known stereochemistry. The standard compound was glyceraldehyde

The C—X bond of alkyl halides is polarized. The carbon atom bears a partial positive charge, The halogen atom a partial negative charge

SN2 reactions are highly useful in organic synthesis because they enable use to convert one functional group into another —— functional group transformation (functional group interconversion)