In chemistry, a ketone (alkanone) is an organic compound with the structure RC(=O)R', where R and R' can be a variety of carbon-containing substituents. Ketones and aldehydes are simple compounds that contain a carbonyl group (a carbon-oxygen double bond). They are considered "simple" because they do not have reactive groups like −OH or −Cl attached directly to the carbon atom in the carbonyl group, as in carboxylic acids containing −COOH. Many ketones are known and many are of great importance in industry and in biology. Examples include many sugars (ketoses) and the industrial solvent acetone, which is the smallest ketone.
The word ketone is derived from Aketon, an old German word for acetone.
According to the rules of IUPAC nomenclature, ketones are named by changing the suffix -ane of the parent alkane to -anone. The position of the carbonyl group is usually denoted by a number. For the most important ketones, however, traditional nonsystematic names are still generally used, for example acetone and benzophenone. These nonsystematic names are considered retained IUPAC names, although some introductory chemistry textbooks use systematic names such as "2-propanone" or "propan-2-one" for the simplest ketone (CH3−CO−CH3) instead of "acetone".
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