ORGANIC CHEMISTRY AND ALKANES

Organic Chemistry is the study of CARBON COMPOUNDS
- Carbon forms multiple covalent bonds

Carbon Compounds can form chains, rings or branches

- There are less than 100,000 non-organic compounds

- Organic compounds number more than 17,000,000

The simplest organic compounds are made of carbon and hydrogen

 

CH4 (Methane) 

 CH3CH3 (Ethane)

- Saturated compounds have no double or triple bonds

- Compounds with only single bonds are called Alkanes and always end in "-ane"

NOMENCLATURE

There are 3 categories of organic compounds

1) Straight chains

2) Cyclic chains

3) Aromatics

STRAIGHT CHAINS

Rules for naming straight chain compounds:

1) Circle the longest continuous chain and name the base chain

- meth, eth, prop, etc... (use  Hydrocarbon Nomenclature Cheat Sheet until it is memorized!)

2) Number the base chin so side chains have the lowest possible numbers

3) Name each side chain using the "-yl" ending

4) Give each side chain the appropriate number

5) List side chains alphabetically

Try naming the following Alkanes! Some of these compounds look a bit different, don't be fooled you fool! :) Answers below!

#1

 

 

#2 

 #3

 

 #4

#5

ANSWERS:

#1 - 2,2 dimethylbutane