Abstract
The term, organic compounds, is applied to materials that contain carbon and are associated with living organisms. Carbon atoms form strong covalent bonds to other carbon atoms and to hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. Families of organic compounds are classified on the basis of their structures (Table 5.1). For example, alkanes are a family of organic compounds whose members contain only carbon and hydrogen atoms linked by single bonds. The numbers of carbon and hydrogen atoms in the compounds vary but the names of all members share the same suffix -ane (Table 5.2).
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Malainey, M.E. (2011). Organic Compounds. In: A Consumer's Guide to Archaeological Science. Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5704-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5704-7_5
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