Q. What are the Functional Groups?

Ans.

A functional group is an atom or group of atoms responsible for most of the chemical properties of a compound. The large number of organic compounds can be classified according to their different functional groups.

Consider three organic compounds which each have four carbon atoms: butane, butene and butanol.

Butane is an unreactive gas. Butene is a reactive gas. Butanol is a reactive liquid. Although all of these compounds have four carbon atoms, they have different physical and chemical properties due to the fact that they have different functional groups.

The double bond group in butene and the -OH group in butanol give them different properties than the unreactive butane. The double bond and the -OH are examples of functional groups.