In this module, more organic families with new functional groups will be introduced. General principles of organic chemistry, learned in Module 4, will be applied to help name, explain and predict the chemistry of these new organic families. The new families include:
- aromatic molecules (arenes)
- carboxylic acids their derivatives (esters, anhydrides, acyl chlorides)
- nitrogen containing groups; amines, amides and amino acids
The concept of polymerisation, first introduced at GCSE, will be expanded to cover addition and condensation polymerisation (polyesters and polyamides).
Organic synthesis will be extended to cover reaction sequences covering several steps.
The analytical technique of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy will be introduced as a sensitive technique for identifying the arrangement of atoms in organic chemical structures. Interpretation of NMR, IR and Mass Spectra, will be used in combination to confirm the identity of organic molecules.