IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry

In chemical nomenclature, the IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry is a systematic method of naming organic chemical compounds as recommended by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). It is published in the Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry (informally called the Blue Book). Ideally, every possible organic compound should have a name from which an unambiguous structural formula can be created. There is also an IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry.

For ordinary communication, to spare a tedious description, the official IUPAC naming recommendations are not always followed in practice, except when it is necessary to give an unambiguous and absolute definition to a compound, or when the IUPAC name is simpler (e.g. ethanol instead of ethyl alcohol). Otherwise the common or trivial name may be used, often derived from the source of the compound (see below). In addition, very long names may be less concise than structural formulae.

In chemistry, a number of prefixes, suffixes and infixes are used to describe the type and position of functional groups in the compound.

The steps for naming an organic compound are:

The numbers for that type of side chain will be grouped in ascending order and written before the name of the side-chain. If there are two side-chains with the same alpha carbon, the number will be written twice. Example: 2,2,3-trimethyl- . If there are both double bonds and triple bonds, "en" (double bond) is written before "yne" (triple bond). When the main functional group is a terminal functional group (a group which can exist only at the end of a chain, like formyl and carboxyl groups), there is no need to number it.

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