Chapter 34 substantially extends the treatment of nitrogen-containing organic compounds from AS Level, introducing a wide range of new chemistry centred on amines, amides, amino acids and azo compounds. The chapter develops both the synthetic routes connecting these classes and the conceptual reasoning that accounts for their basicity, reactivity and biological relevance.

The chapter opens with primary and secondary amines, covering their preparation by reduction of amides or nitriles and by reaction of halogenoalkanes with ammonia or primary amines. Their basicity in aqueous solution is described and explained, and the relative basicities of ammonia, ethylamine and phenylamine are compared and rationalised in terms of the availability of the nitrogen lone pair.

The chemistry of phenylamine is then treated in detail, including its preparation from nitrobenzene, its reaction with aqueous bromine, and its conversion to a diazonium salt below 10°C. The coupling of diazonium salts with phenol in alkaline solution to give azo compounds is described, with the use of azo compounds as dyes noted. Amides are addressed next, covering their preparation from acyl chlorides, their hydrolysis under acidic and alkaline conditions, their reduction to amines, and the explanation for their markedly weaker basicity compared to amines. The chapter closes with amino acids, examining their acid-base properties, zwitterion formation, isoelectric point, peptide bond formation, and the interpretation of electrophoresis results at varying pH values.