Organic Chemistry Terms Starting with O
Definitions of 19 organic chemistry terms that start with O, such as Observed Rotation, Octet Rule, Off-Resonance Decoupling. Plain-language explanations…
Terms starting with O
- Observed Rotation: Actual optical rotation measured in a polarimeter under specific conditions.
- Octet Rule: Many main-group atoms tend toward 8 valence electrons.
- Off-Resonance Decoupling: ¹³C NMR technique retaining limited splitting information while simplifying the spectrum.
- Oils: Lipids that are liquid at the temperature being considered.
- Oligomers: Short chains containing only a few repeating units.
- Optically Active: Able to rotate plane-polarized light.
- Optically Inactive: Does not produce net rotation of plane-polarized light.
- Optically Pure: Contains essentially one enantiomer.
- Organohalide: Organic compound containing a carbon–halogen bond.
- Ortho: Positions 1,2 on a benzene ring.
- Ortho–Para Director: Substituent that directs aromatic substitution mainly to ortho/para positions.
- Oxaphosphetane: Four-membered O/P-containing intermediate in the Wittig reaction.
- Oxidation: In organic chemistry: commonly more C–O / fewer C–H bonds or an increase in carbon oxidation state.
- Oxidation State: Formal bookkeeping number describing an atom's degree of oxidation.
- Oxime: Compound containing C=N–OH, usually made from a carbonyl and hydroxylamine.
- Oxirane: Systematic parent name for the simplest epoxide ring.
- Oxonium Ion: Positively charged oxygen species, often oxygen with three bonds.
- Oxymercuration–Demercuration: Hydrates an alkene with Markovnikov orientation without a free carbocation rearrangement pathway.
- Ozonolysis: Uses ozone to cleave C=C bonds into carbonyl-containing products, depending on workup.