In order to know the meaning of the term functional group, it is necessary, first of all, to discover the etymological origin of the two words that give it shape:
-Group, first of all, comes from the Indo-European root “ger-3”, which can be translated as “crooked”. That gave rise in Germanic to “kruppa”, which is synonymous with “dough” and which later reached Italian or French. Specifically, in the French language it became “groupe” and its meaning was “a group of people with the same purpose.”
-Functional, secondly, derives from Latin. Exactly it is the result of the sum of two lexical components of said language: the noun “functio”, which is synonymous with “exercise” or “function”, and the suffix “-al”, which is used to indicate “relative to”.
The idea of a functional group is used in the field of chemistry to refer to the atoms that give the distinctive chemical properties to an organic molecule . It can be an atom or a set of these particles.
Organic molecules are chemical compounds that have carbon and that form carbon-hydrogen and carbon-carbon bonds. Chemical compounds , in turn, are substances that are formed by combining at least two different elements from the periodic table.
Returning to the idea of a functional group, these are the atoms that grant the chemical properties and reactivity to organic compounds. These atoms are linked to a carbon chain , associating themselves with the rest of the molecule through covalent bonds .
Organic compounds that share the same functional group form homologous series . These compounds have similar reactions and properties due to the fact that they have the same functional groups.
The hydroxyl group is one of the most common functional groups. It is composed of an oxygen atom and a hydrogen atom and characterizes alcohols , which form a homologous series. This means that all alcohols, such as ethyl alcohol , methyl alcohol , benzyl alcohol , and the rest, have a hydroxyl functional group.
The carbonyl group is another widespread functional group. In this case, it has a carbon atom related to an oxygen atom through a double bond. Ketones make up the homologous series of compounds that are distinguished by having a carbonyl functional group linked to two carbon atoms.
However, we cannot ignore the existence of another series of functional groups, among which the following stand out:
-Alkoxy group, which can also be called ROR. In this case we must know that R and R» contain carbon atoms.
-Amino group, which is also known as the NH2 group. We can establish that this is the characteristic group of organic compounds that respond to the name of amines. Likewise, you should know that it is established that this group derives from ammonia.
-Carboxyl group, which also appears as COOH and is characterized by being the identifier of the so-called organic acids.