Carbon Compounds


Nomenclature of alcohols

According to IUPAC nomenclature alcohols are named by replacing ‘e’ in the name of parent alkane by ‘ol’.

In this system following rules are followed:

  1. The longest continuous chain containing the carbon bonded to OH group is selected as the parent chain.
  2. The carbon atoms in the chain are numbered in such a way that the carbon atom carrying the hydroxyl group gets the lowest number. For example,
Serial No. Name Structural Formula
1. Ethan-1-ol Structure of Ethan-1-ol
2. Propan-1-ol Structure of Propan-1-ol
3. Propan-2-ol Structure of Propan-2-ol
4. Butan-1-ol Structure of Butan-1-ol
5. Butan-2-ol Structure of Butan-2-ol
6. Pentan-1-ol Structure of Pentan-1-ol
7. Pentan-2-ol Structure of Pentan-2-ol
8. Pentan-3-ol Structure of Pentan-3-ol

Test your understanding and answer these questions:

  1. Give nomenclature of alcohols.
  2. What are alkanols?

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