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What is an organic substance?

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Abstract

No exact definition of an “organic” substance has been agreed upon by the chemical community and textbook definitions vary substantially. The question of what exactly constitutes an “organic” substance is explored in this paper. Various carbon-containing substances that have been by some considered to be “inorganic” are examined in an attempt to ascertain whether carbon in these compounds display different chemical behavior than what is expected of carbon in an “organic” substance. Types of substances considered are carbon allotropes, carbides, carbonates and bicarbonates, cyanide and cyanate ions, carbido clusters, carbon oxides, and compounds without hydrogen.

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Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to Drs. Paul Fishbein, Kevin Cannon, John Tierney, Stuart Cantrill, Stephen Davey, and David Rovnyak for their insightful commentary on the manuscript, to the chemists who visited the poster at the 2018 BCCE and discussed it with me, and to Caroline Silverberg for the artwork in the Graphic Abstract.

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The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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Correspondence to Lee J. Silverberg.

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Silverberg, L.J. What is an organic substance?. Found Chem 23, 329–336 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-021-09400-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-021-09400-z

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