The lessons
The lessons were written with Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic. They teach the organic chemistry covered in school courses and introductory textbooks: carbon chains and their names, functional groups, rings, mirror-image molecules, how reactions happen, and the molecules of life.
Molecules
The structure drawings and 3D models are made from structure data in PubChem, the free chemistry database run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Each molecule below links to its PubChem page.
- (−)-Menthol
- 1,2-Benzoquinone
- 1,2-Dibromoethane
- 9,10-Bis(phenylethynyl)anthracene
- Acetaldehyde (ethanal)
- Acetic acid (ethanoic acid)
- Acetone (propanone)
- 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline
- Adenine
- Adenosine
- Adipic acid (hexanedioic acid)
- (R)-adrenaline
- Alanine
- all-trans-retinal
- Alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E)
- Ammonia
- Aspartame
- Aspirin
- Avobenzone
- Benzene
- Benzonitrile
- Beta-carotene
- Bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE)
- Buta-1,3-diene
- Butan-2-ol
- Butane
- Caffeine
- Capsaicin
- Carbon dioxide
- Carbon monoxide
- Carbon tetrachloride (tetrachloromethane)
- (R)-carvone
- (S)-carvone
- Catechol
- Chloroform (trichloromethane)
- Cinnamaldehyde
- cis-but-2-ene
- 11-cis-retinal
- Citric acid
- Coronene
- Cyanidin
- Cyanocoronene
- Cyclohexane
- Cysteine
- 7-Dehydrocholesterol
- Dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12)
- Dimethyl ether (methoxymethane)
- Disilane
- Dopamine
- Elaidic acid (trans-octadec-9-enoic acid)
- Ethane
- Ethanoic anhydride (acetic anhydride)
- Ethanol
- Ethene
- Ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate
- Ethyl acetate (ethyl ethanoate)
- Ethylene glycol (ethane-1,2-diol)
- Ethyne
- Firefly luciferin
- Fructose
- Glucose
- Glycerol (propane-1,2,3-triol)
- Glycine
- Glycylglycine
- Heptane
- Hexamethyldisiloxane
- Hexamethylenediamine (hexane-1,6-diamine)
- Hexane
- Hydrogen peroxide
- (S)-ibuprofen
- Indigo
- Isoamyl acetate (3-methylbutyl ethanoate)
- Isobutane (2-methylpropane)
- Isooctane (2,2,4-trimethylpentane)
- Isopentane (2-methylbutane)
- Lactic acid (2-hydroxypropanoic acid)
- Levodopa (L-DOPA)
- (R)-limonene
- (R)-Linalool
- (S)-Linalool
- Maltose
- Methanal (formaldehyde)
- Methane
- Methanol
- Methylamine
- 2-Methylbuta-1,3-diene (isoprene)
- 2-Methylpentane
- Nitrogen
- Octane
- Octocrylene
- Oleic acid (cis-octadec-9-enoic acid)
- Oxygen
- Ozone
- p-Phenylenediamine (benzene-1,4-diamine)
- Palmitate ion (hexadecanoate)
- Palmitic acid
- Penicillin G
- Phenol
- Propan-2-ol
- Propane
- Quinine
- Salicin
- Salicylic acid
- Serotonin
- Silane
- Sucrose
- Terephthalic acid (benzene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid)
- trans-but-2-ene
- Triethylenetetramine (TETA)
- Trimethylamine
- Vanillin
- Vitamin D₃ (cholecalciferol)
- Water
The 3D viewer
The 3D models are shown with 3Dmol.js, a free, open-source molecule viewer from the University of Pittsburgh. Its authors describe it in this paper:
Nicholas Rego and David Koes, “3Dmol.js: molecular visualization with WebGL”, Bioinformatics 31(8), 1322–1324 (2015).
Diagrams
The diagrams of rings, mirror images, reactions, crystals, polymers, the molecules of life, polar molecules, hydrogen bonds, the pH scale, soap, colour, reaction speeds, oxidation, fuels, medicines, cooking, curly arrows, separating mixtures, spectra, synthesis, recycling, cis and trans, smell and taste, the body's messengers, the air, and graphene, nanotubes and buckyballs were drawn for this site.
The bending water stream
Lesson 11's explanation of how a charged balloon bends a stream of water comes from this paper:
Maryam Ziaei-Moayyed, Edward Goodman and Peter Williams, “Electrical deflection of polar liquid streams: a misunderstood demonstration”, Journal of Chemical Education 77(11), 1520–1523 (2000).
Fonts
Headings are set in Space Grotesk and body text in Lexend, both free, open-source fonts.
Spotted a mistake?
Email errors-163bcb@carboncarbon.bond with the lesson and what looks wrong.