Conjugation & UV-Vis Spectroscopy: Crash Course Organic Chemistry #41

Carrots get their orange-y color from, you guessed it, an organic chemical. This chemical, called beta carotene, gets its pigment from its conjugated electron system. We’ve talked some already about conjugation, but in this episode of Crash Course Organic Chemistry, we’ll go even deeper and look at how conjugation stabilizes molecules and how p orbitals can overlap to form pi molecular orbitals of different energy levels. Plus we’ll learn what UV spectroscopy can show us about conjugated molecules.

Episode Sources:
Semba, R.D., 2012. On the ‘discovery’ of vitamin A. Annals of nutrition and metabolism, 61(3), pp.192-198.
Webbook.nist.gov. 2021. 1,4-Pentadiene. [online] Available at: https://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/cbook.cgi?ID=C591935&Units=SI&Mask=8#Thermo-React

Series Sources:
Brown, W. H., Iverson, B. L., Ansyln, E. V., Foote, C., Organic Chemistry; 8th ed.; Cengage Learning, Boston, 2018.
Bruice, P. Y., Organic Chemistry, 7th ed.; Pearson Education, Inc., United States, 2014.
Clayden, J., Greeves, N., Warren., S., Organic Chemistry, 2nd ed.; Oxford University Press, New York, 2012.
Jones Jr., M.; Fleming, S. A., Organic Chemistry, 5th ed.; W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2014.
Klein., D., Organic Chemistry; 1st ed.; John Wiley & Sons, United States, 2012.
Louden M., Organic Chemistry; 5th ed.; Roberts and Company Publishers, Colorado, 2009.
McMurry, J., Organic Chemistry, 9th ed.; Cengage Learning, Boston, 2016.
Smith, J. G., Organic chemistry; 6th ed.; McGraw-Hill Education, New York, 2020.
Wade., L. G., Organic Chemistry; 8th ed.; Pearson Education, Inc., United States, 2013.