Question on IUPAC nomenclature?

Published December 15, 2010

Question by Gabry Hyrule: Question on IUPAC nomenclature?
Hi,
I have two questions on IUPAC’s nomenclature for organic chemistry:
1. I am not sure if I’m allowed to use “common” names like isopropane, isopropyl, isobutane, tert-butyl, etc in a IUPAC name. I sometimes hear yes, but my teacher says no. Can someone tell me exactly what names am I allowed to use in a IUPAC name?
2. In the same test, I wrote “isobutanol”, and apparently it’s wrong because I mixed IUPAC and common names together”. Isobutanol is the name of wikipedia’s page on the compound, so I’m wondering if it’s that wrong. I know the better way to name would be isobutyl alcohol, but can’t I use isobutanol because it’s mixing the two nomenclatures?

thank you

Best answer:

Answer by Matthew
That’s weird, I could have sworn I answered this question already…

1) If your professor wants formality then you should do it. Know that in the real lab work, when you communicate with your coworkers, you won’t be too caught up on IUPAC, but if you write a professional publication then you will. What’s nice now though is you can use software to name things correctly for you.

2) Wikipedia is not always a solid source of information. You should trust your text over Wikipedia, and your professor over your text in most cases.

Cheers

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