codeįor example, butane means four carbons in a chain with no double bond. Whether or not the compound contains a carbon-carbon double bond is shown by the two letters immediately after the code for the chain length. If you don't do this properly, you won't be able to name anything! code There is no easy way around this - you have got to learn them. You will need to remember the codes for the number of carbon atoms in a chain up to 6 carbons. Any name you are likely to come across can be broken up in this same way. The other two parts of the name tell you about interesting things which are happening on the first and second carbon atom in the chain. The an which follows the 'prop' tells you that there aren't any carbon-carbon double bonds. The prop in the middle tells you how many carbon atoms there are in the longest chain (in this case, 3). Each part of the name gives you some useful information about the compound.įor example, to understand the name 2-methylpropan-1-ol you need to take the name to pieces. Come back to them as they arise during the natural flow of your course.Ī modern organic name is simply a code. Just go as far as the compounds you are interested in at the moment and ignore the rest. Don't try to read all these pages in one go. In the early stages of an organic chemistry course people frequently get confused and daunted by the names because they try to do too much at once. In the process you will also pick up tips about how to produce names yourself. So, we're going to look mainly at how you decode names and turn them into formulae. However, you might only be asked to write a name for a given formula once in a whole exam - in which case you only risk 1 mark. In an exam, if you can't write a formula for a given compound, you aren't going to know what the examiner is talking about and could lose lots of marks. The first of these is more important (and also easier!) than the second. You need to be able to name a compound from its given formula. You need to be able to translate the name of an organic compound into its structural formula. There are two skills you have to develop in this area: How this page is going to tackle the problem At the bottom of the page, you will find links to other types of compound. It covers alkanes, cycloalkanes, alkenes, simple compounds containing halogens, alcohols, aldehydes and ketones. This page explains how to write the formula for an organic compound given its name - and vice versa. Understanding the names of organic compounds

Organic compound name by drawing