Rules for Naming Organic Compounds

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (lUPAC) has set standard rules for naming organic compounds. The systematic (or lUPAC) names of alkanes and most other organic compounds follow the same pattern, shown below. 

Systematic nomenclature on a worldwide scale began in 1892 when a committee of the International Chemical Congress established a set of standards known as the Geneva Rules for naming organic compounds. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (ILTPAC) http /Ywww,iupac.org/dhtml home.html was formed in 1919 and further developed this nomenclature system. In 1886 in the United States, the American Chemical Society (ACS) established a Committee on... 

Rules for naming organic compounds are given in Appendix D. 

The second edition of the well-known Red Book, the definitive recommendations of the lUPAC Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry, appeared in Pure Appl. Chem., 28, 1-110 (1971). It is also available separately as a hard-bound reprint. In this edition, the rules for naming organometallic compounds have been completely revised and extended, with introduction of the rj nomenclature for organic ligands. 

The name of a polymer is the prefix poly followed in parentheses or brackets by the name of the CRU. The CRU is named by naming its subunits. Subunits are defined as the largest subunits that can be named by the IPUAC rules for small organic compounds. 

Chemists group hydrocarbons and other organic compounds into the categories shown in Figure 13.10. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has developed a comprehensive set of rules for naming the compounds within each category. Using these rules, you will be able to classify and name all the hydrocarbon compounds that you will encounter in this unit. 

The IUPAC system for naming organic compounds is very logical and thorough. The rules for naming alkanes are the basis for naming the other organic compounds that you will study. Therefore it is important that you understand how to name alkanes. 

Judging from the number of incorrect names that appear in the chemical literature, it s probably safe to say that relatively few practicing organic chemists are fully conversant with the rules of organic nomenclature. Simple hydrocarbons and monofunctional compounds present few difficulties because the basic rules for naming such compounds are logical and easy to understand. Problems, however, are often encountered with polyfunctional compounds. Whereas most chemists could correctly identify hydrocarbon 1 as 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylheptane, rather few could correctly identify poly functional compound 2. Should we consider 2 as an ether As an ethyl ester As a ketone As an alkeae It is, of course, all four, but it has only one correct name ethyl 3-(4-methoxy-2-oxo-3-cyclohexenyl)propanoate. 

References which from abstracts appear to be pertinent to the problem should be referred to in their original form. When the final abstract is included in the literature report, clarification and amplification of misleading or involved chemical terminology, notational systems, trivial names, and trade-mark names should be made parenthetically. To establish these facts, one may refer to standard rules for naming organic and inorganic compounds as followed by the American Chemical Society (8, 17-19). These added notations will make it easier for the investigator to interpret the data. 

The rules for naming inorganic compounds are set down by the Committee on Inorganic Nomenclature of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (lUPAC). The names and formulas of a few organic compounds were given in Table 2-2, and more systematic rules for naming them will appear in Chapter 27. 

Because there are literally millions of organic compounds, it would be impossible to remember common names for all of them. Just as we did in Chapter 4 for inorganic compounds, we must learn a systematic method for naming organic compounds. We will first consider the principles applied in naming alkanes and then summarize them as a set of rules. 

The lUPAC nomenclature system is used not only for naming organic compounds but is also useful for recognizing that two structural drawings represent the same compound. Correct application of the lUPAC rules yields the same name for duplicate drawings of the same compound. 

There are a lot more rules to naming organic compounds, but that s enough for now. 

A major portion of this chapter deals with how we name organic compounds The system used throughout the world is based on a set of rules for naming hydrocarbons then extending these rules to encompass other families of organic compounds... 

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