What is the basic concept of conversions of organic compound?

Answer 1

Convert what? IUPAC names into stick models? That is what I get from your question.

Basically:

You name the compound from the longest UNBRANCHED carbon chain or in some cases a special functional group forms the basic of the name (like amines and sometimes ketones, aldehydes and carboxyl acids etc), and then there are specific rules about what substituents are placed first in the name. Standardized rules are important if one is to recreate a molecule from a complicated name. (they use CAS numbers now, but still).

An example is the illegal amphetamine, the name is short for Alpha-methylphenylethylamine, but that is not a correct name according to IUPAC, the correct name is 1-phenylpropane-2-amine, transalted as: a phenyl group at position 1 and an amino group at position 2 on a straight propane chain.

Adding to the complexity is the concept of stereo isomerism, where molecules that look identical in 2 dimensions actually are different in 3 dimensions, concepts as cis/trans isomerism and optical activity are important.

Cis/trans isomerism arises around a double bond, that is rigid and does not alow rotating of the two carbons, when both carbons have substituents other than 2 hydrogen atoms. In the case of CIS (Latin for "same") the substituents point to the same side, in the case of trans (Latin for "opposite"), the substituents point away from each other

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CH3

Stereoisomerism ocours in molecules that have 1 or more so-called chilral centers, where 1 ctarbon atom has 4 different substituents, and you have something other that a racemic (50/50 of the two different stereo isomers of a 1 chiral center molecule, with 2 or more chiral centers things get really complicated) the dextro/levo rotary property which is measured using polarized light, and the S/R system which defines chiral centers based on simple rules, are both methods of describing the configuration of chiral centers

Many common names, in fact most common chemical names are either not systematic at all or are named using an older nomenclature, examples: formic acid (methanoic acid), acetaldehyde (ethanal), isopropyl alcohol (2-propanol or propan-2-ol).