What element do all organic materials contain?

All organic materials are defined by the presence of carbon. Carbon atoms are the foundational building blocks of organic chemistry, allowing for complex molecules necessary for life. This versatility is due to carbon's ability to form stable bonds with various elements, including itself, creating long chains and complex structures essential for biological processes.

While hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen can also be found in organic materials, they are not fundamental to the definition of organic compounds. For example, organic compounds include hydrocarbons, which consist solely of carbon and hydrogen, while the presence of nitrogen and oxygen is characteristic of specific groups of organic compounds but not of all organic materials. Thus, carbon is the defining element that ensures a substance is classified as organic.