what is organic chemistry

Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry that involves the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials that contain carbon atoms. Organic compounds can include hydrocarbons (compounds containing only carbon and hydrogen) as well as compounds based on carbon, but also containing other elements, especially oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and the halogens. Organic chemistry is a highly creative science that allows chemists to create and explore molecules and compounds. Organic chemists spend much of their time developing new compounds and finding better ways of synthesizing existing ones. Organic chemistry is used in many fields, including medicine, materials science, and agriculture. Organic industrial chemistry focuses on converting raw materials (e.g., oil, natural gas, air, water, metals) into useful products. Organic chemistry is a crucial field of study because the core structural, catalytic, information storage, and retrieval systems of organisms are carbon-based macromolecules.