Formal Nomenclature of Alkanes

FIGURE 2.5 Organic chemists do have a sense of humor. 

Returning to the simple alkanes, the names from pentane onwards derive from the number of carbon atoms. For now, we ll just look at the linear alkanes, and the names are shown in Table 2.2. Each name is composed of a root, which tells us how many carbon atoms we have, plus a suffix, which tells us what type of molecule it is. For alkanes, our suffix is -ane. Most of the prefixes are Greek in origin, and many will be familiar from other words that you know. You would not easily deduce the names of very long alkanes, but most will be understandable, once seen. For example, C74H150 is tetraheptacontane tetra- gives us the 4 and hepta- the 7, and contane is used for the decades between 30 and 100. 

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