Hydrocarbons and Nomenclature

Alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, and aromatic compounds are members of a family of organic compounds called hydrocarbons, compounds of carbon and hydrogen. These hydrocarbons are the simplest of organic compounds, but are extremely important to our society as fuels and raw materials for chemical industries. We 

There can be many more carbon units in a chain than are shown in Table 21-1, but those are enough to allow us to study a little alkane nomenclature, the naming of alkanes. 

The naming of alkanes relies upon choosing the longest carbon chain in the structural formula. Then name the hydrocarbon branches with a number indicating to which carbon atom the branch is attached. Here are the specific rules for naming simple alkanes  

Find the continuous carbon chain in the compound that contains the most carbon atoms. This will be the base name of the alkane. 

You will modify this base name by adding the names of the branches (substituent group) in front of the base name. We name alkane branches by 

---