| Introduction |
| From the very beginnings
of science people have heated substances to
see what happened to them. In 1807, Jons
Jacob Berzelius decided that chemicals
could all he divided broadly into two groups
based on their behavior when heated. The substances,
which burnt or charred on heating – and these
were mostly from living things – he called organic
chemicals. Any substances, which melted
or vaporized when they were heated but then
returned to their original state, Berzelius
said were inorganic. Although
we now recognize this classification as somewhat
shaky, it gave chemists of the day something
to focus their work on. |
 |
| A classification
based on whether a substance melts or burns
when it is heated is fine if you test it on
materials such as wood and ice. |
| At the same time
different inorganic chemicals were being synthesized.
However, there was a widespread belief that
it was impossible to synthesize organic compounds,
that they were formed by animals and plants
under the influence of a vital force within
the living body. Friedrich Wohler
put an end to this erroneous belief in 1828,
when he heated ammonium cyanate (NH4OCN)
and produced urea (NH2CONH2).
Wohler showed that the synthesized urea was
exactly the same chemically as urea extracted
from dog's urine – this was the first synthesis
of an organic chemical from an inorganic source. |
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