Nomenclature (Simple molecules)- 1

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 IUPAC Nomenclature sounds scary, doesn't it?

I remember the first time I was taught this concept (in class 10). My teacher was convinced that we wouldn't understand the concept in one go! In all honesty I do not remember how long it took for me to understand the concept but I landed up forgetting it anyway. When I finally understood it, I was in college. This topic constantly kept me wondering about the point of it all but after I did understand organic chemistry started to make a lot of sense ! Not only that, it was fun too. Me being someone who loves loves chemistry am so excited to be writing about it. 

Nomenclature means name. The IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) set the rules for naming the various compounds. These rules make it simple for drawing the structures and this in turn makes reactions easy to understand. 

The simple organic compound doesn't have any functional groups,


Selection of longest continuous chain of carbon atoms

This step is extremely essential. As the name suggests, we need to select the longest chain. 

This structure does not consist of any side chains so the name is based on the number of carbon atoms which is 5. The name of the compound is Pentane.

Based on the number of carbon atoms, the following are the basic chains


Alkanes- Carbon chains which contain only single bonds

Since we are only focusing on simple molecules, I am only going to write about carbon chains which possess single bonds.

In the above example, things are quite simple. Its a straight chain ,i.e, does not have any branches. Also, it is five carbons long. Its name is pentane. 

However, when we have branching of the main chain, we have to consider the longest chain. The name of the compound is the derivative of the longest chain of carbons .

For example,


In the above structure, there are two ways of numbering it and the carbon chain length is different in both cases. The way we can number are, 

The chain consists of 6 carbon atoms






The chain consists of 7 carbon atoms


The second case is the one that is considered. Try figuring out the longest chain for the following molecules.































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