Functional groups in organic chemistry are specific groups of atoms within molecules that determine the outcome of each of the chemical reactions a molecule undergoes. They are sort of fingerprint or characteristics that are used to classify organic chemistry compounds. For example, carboxylic acids, esters, aldehydes and ketones are known to posses all, a carbonyl group (C=O). This group is responsible of several similarities in the chemical reactivity of these families of organic compounds. Aromatic compounds are known for possessing at least one aromatic ring. It is sort of a big help to organic chemist and whoever wants to master organic synthesis to learn as much organic chemistry functional groups as possible. Fortunately alkanes family are used as the root for naming organic chemistry compounds with different functional groups. This is true for simple organic compounds but it gets more complicated when there is more than one type of functional groups. Thus, combining the names of functional groups with the names of the parent alkanes generates a powerful systematic nomenclature for naming organic compounds . Also, functional groups the key points to studying spectroscopy such as infra-red spectroscopy or Raman spectroscopy.

List of common types of functional groups in organic chemistry:

ALCOHOLS: R-OH

ETHERS: R-O-R’

ALDEHYDES: R-CHO

KETONES: R-CO-R’

CARBOXYLIC ACIDS: R-COOH

ESTERS: R-COOR’

AMINES: R-NR’R”

AMIDES: R-CO-NR’R”.