Naming of organic compounds

Nomenclature of complex ions and organic compounds. We believe that this material is of little value in a beginning course. The students promptly forget how to name a complex ion, because they have litde chance to use the rules. The naming of organic compounds seems better left to a course in organic chemistry. 

The names of organic compounds have some system. Each functional group defines a family (for example, alcohols, amines) and a specific modifier is added to identify a particular example (for example, ethyl alcohol, ethyl amine). As an alternate naming system, the family may be named by a general identifying ending (for example, alcohol names end in -ol) and a particular example is indicated by an appropriate stem (ethyl alcohol would be ethanol). These naming systems are illustrated in Tables 18-1 and 18-11. 

The names of organic compounds are based on the names of the parent hydrocarbons alcohols contain —OH groups, carboxylic acids contain —COOH groups, and haloalkanes contain halogen atoms. 

This is the traditional and convenient nomenclature of this class of compounds, which will be used in this chapter. According to lUPAC recommendations it should be named as (S)-methylenesulfonium methanide. Glossary of Class Names of Organic Compounds and Reactive Intermediates, lUPAC Recommendation 1995, Pure Appl. Chem., 1995, 67, 1375. 

Molecular representations and functional groups in organic compounds, (a) Different ways to represent the structures of aliphatic and aromatic compounds, (b) Some important functional groups attached to organic skeletons, and the corresponding names of organic compounds. 

D.4 Names of Inorganic Molecular Compounds D.5 Names of Organic Compounds... 

The nomenclature of the aromatic aldehydes is somewhat confusing because in the past a number of different conventions were used in the naming of organic compounds. While some, such as cyclamen aldehyde, and vanillin, are usually referred to by their common names, others are referred to either by a single chemical name or by a number of different chemical synonyms. 

Moss GP, Smith PAS, Tavernier D. Glossary of class names of organic compounds and reactivity intermediates based on structure. Pure Appl Chem. 1995 67 1307-75. 

Vander Stouw, G. G., Naznitsky, I., and Rush, J. E., 1967. Procedures for converting systematic names of organic compounds into atom-bond connection tables. Journal of Chemical Documentation, 7(3) 165—169. 

The naming of organic compounds depends upon two things ... 

Consequently, the naming of organic compounds is now described by a standard system. 

The systematic naming of organic compounds will be discussed in Chapter 22. 

Ethanal also has the common name acetaldehyde. Scientists often use the common names of organic compounds because they are so familiar to chemists. Because the carbonyl group in an aldehyde always occurs at the end of a carbon chain, no numbers are used in the name unless branches or additional functional groups are present. 

Key point. Organic compounds are classified by functional groups which determine their chemistry. The names of organic compounds are derived from the functional group (or groups) and the main carbon chain. From the name, the structure of organic compounds can be drawn using KekuU, condensed or skeletal structures. 

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Glossary of Class Names of Organic Compounds and Reactive Intermediates Based on Structure, Moss, G. P., Smith, P. A. S., and Tavernier, D., Eds., Pure Appl. Chem. 67, 1307, 1995. 

Glossary of Class Names of Organic Compounds and Reactive Intermediates Based on Structure, Pure and Applied Chemistry, 67, 1307,1995. 

Aldehydes are formally named by changing the final -e of the name of the alkane with the same number of carbon atoms to the suffix -a/. Thus, the formal name of the compound methanal, shown in Table 22.7, is based on the one-carbon alkane methane. Because the carbonyl group in an aldehyde always occurs at the end of a carbon chain, no numbers are used in the name unless branches or additional functional groups are present. Methanal is also commonly called formaldehyde. Ethanal has the common name acetaldehyde. Scientists often use the common names of organic compounds because they are familiar to chemists. 

---