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Introduction to Functional Groups

Introduction to Functional Groups

Functional groups are group of atoms with specific chemical properties that occur within organic molecules and sometimes denoted as “R”. Functional groups are found along the carbon backbone of macromolecules can form chains or rings of carbon atoms. Functional groups can “functionalize” a compound by enabling it to adopt different physical and chemical properties.
Types of common functional groups
The table below summarizes some of the major functional groups in organic chemistry....

Overview of Advanced Functional Groups

Overview of Advanced Functional Groups

Functional groups are groups of atoms with specific chemical properties that occur within organic molecules and are sometimes denoted as “R”. Functional groups can “functionalize” a compound by enabling it to adopt different physical and chemical properties.
Types of Advanced Functional Groups
The table below summarizes some of the major functional groups in organic chemistry.

Functional Groups

Functional Groups

Functional Groups

Functional Groups

Functional groups are a group of atoms with characteristic properties, which when linked to the carbon skeleton of a molecule, alter the properties of that molecule. For example, the presence of certain functional groups on a molecule will make them hydrophilic, whereas others will make them hydrophobic. These functional groups are an indispensable part of organic chemistry and important components of biological molecules, such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Each...

Overview of Functional Groups

Overview of Functional Groups

Functional groups are a group of atoms with characteristic properties, which when linked to the carbon skeleton of a molecule, alter the properties of that molecule. For example, certain functional groups will make a molecule hydrophilic, whereas others will make them hydrophobic. These functional groups are an indispensable part of organic chemistry and important components of biological molecules, such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Each functional group is a unique...

Organic Compounds

Organic Compounds

All living things are formed mostly of carbon compounds called organic compounds. The category of organic compounds includes both natural and synthetic compounds that contain carbon. Although a single, precise definition has yet to be identified by the chemistry community, most agree that a defining trait of organic molecules is the presence of carbon as the principal element, bonded to hydrogen and other carbon atoms. However, some carbon-containing compounds such as carbonates, cyanides, and...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 19, 2026

Qualitative Identification of Carboxylic Acids, Boronic Acids, and Amines Using Cruciform Fluorophores

Qualitative Identification of Carboxylic Acids, Boronic Acids, and Amines Using Cruciform Fluorophores

Published on: August 19, 2013

An algorithm to identify functional groups in organic molecules.

¹Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, 4056, Basel, Switzerland. peter.ertl@novartis.com.

Journal of Cheminformatics

|November 1, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

A new algorithm automatically identifies all functional groups in organic molecules, overcoming limitations of existing substructure-based software. This method enables efficient analysis of large chemical databases for diverse applications.

Keywords:

Chemical functionality Functional group Medicinal chemistry Organic chemistry

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Applying Cheminformatics to Develop a Structure Searchable Database of Analytical Methods

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Published on: June 6, 2025

Area of Science:

Organic Chemistry
Cheminformatics
Computational Chemistry

Background:

Functional groups are fundamental to organic chemistry, impacting areas like drug discovery and toxicity assessment.
Current software relies on predefined substructures, limiting comprehensive automatic functional group identification.
No existing program can automatically identify all functional groups within a molecule.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a novel algorithm for the automatic identification of all functional groups in organic molecules.
To address the limitations of current substructure-based approaches in functional group recognition.

Main Methods:

An iterative algorithm that traverses atoms within a molecule to identify functional groups.
The algorithm's procedure is demonstrated using the ChEMBL database.

Main Results:

Successfully identified 3080 unique functional groups from the ChEMBL database.
The algorithm provides a comprehensive approach to functional group detection.

Conclusions:

A new, simple algorithm for identifying all functional groups in organic molecules has been developed.
The algorithm is easily implementable in cheminformatics toolkits.
Enables large-scale functional group analysis in chemical databases, surpassing previous methods.