The ORGANIC CHEMISTRY is published in two separate volumes, as Part One and Part Two, for purely educational reasons, in order to adapt to the need for teaching the corresponding course over two separate University semesters. This fact has also largely determined the selection, distribution, and extent of the material, which was aimed at providing the most comprehensive possible teaching, at the undergraduate level, of the course in Organic Chemistry.
The various Chapters are accompanied by selected exercises, with model answers - solutions, explanations, and extensions, for better understanding and consolidation of the basic material. The indexes provide a complete and systematic recording of the various compounds, concepts, and terms for easy locating them in the text wherever and whenever they are mentioned.
Before the systematic study of the classes of organic compounds, extensive references are made to topics related to the synthesis, nomenclature, and stereochemistry of organic compounds for understanding the structural problems of organic molecules. The basic principles of electronic theories are developed, which explain and justify their general characteristics. The basic theoretical principles of the most important spectroscopic methods are provided, with particular emphasis on the description and interpretation of various spectra, from which valuable information and conclusions about the structure of organic molecules arise.
Next, common characteristic elements of various reagents and their reactions are highlighted and categorized into groups that exhibit similar behavior. With these introductory Chapters, the aim is to understand the general characteristics of organic molecules, to explain as well as to predict their physical and chemical properties, in order to provide the necessary foundation for the critical study of the individual compounds that follows, as well as the ability to approach the properties of compounds that will not be systematically examined.
In Part One, only hydrocarbons (excluding aromatics), alkyl halides, esters of inorganic acids, organometallic compounds, alcohols, ethers, carbonyl compounds, carboxylic acids, and their derivatives are systematically examined, according to the time constraints offered within the teaching framework of a semester course. By studying these simple compounds, the prerequisites for the study of other classes of compounds included in Part Two of this textbook are gradually secured.
In the limited scope and selection of material in this book, it is natural for there to be omissions. Any suggestions related to omissions as well as errors, or the structure of the material will be welcome.
