Sulfur Analogs of Oxygen-Containing Organic Compounds
[caption id="attachment_24653" align="alignright" width="480"] Common oxygen-containing organic compounds[/caption] Organic compounds contain carbon and hydrogen, and occasionally other elements. Most notably, these include nitrogen and sulfur, but also phosphorous, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Simple oxygen-containing organics, including n-butyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, methyl ethyl ketone, diethyl ether, and tert-butyl peroxide appear in the illustration at top. An analog is a structure which is similar to another structure, except that one atom or group is replaced by another (similar-behaving) atom or group. Here, we will discuss sulfur analogs. Alcohols The generic structure for a simple hydrocarbon, a compound of hydrogen and carbon, is usually written RH. The equivalent for an aromatic structure is ArH. An alcohol has one hydrogen atom replaced by an –OH group. Hence, an alcohol is written generically, R–OH. The aromatic…