Alkanes and Nomenclature
By James Ashenhurst
Don’t Be Futyl, Learn The Butyls
Last updated: March 21st, 2019
Nomenclature: what a headache. We’ve got all these accumulated years of jargon regarding chemical structures, and unless you learn the lingo, it can be confusing to follow what’s going on.
Case in point: butyl. There are FOUR different types of “butyls”, and they all have their own name. In addition they each have a common name (“trivial name”) which they commonly go by. It’s easy to get confused. So today’s post is a guide to sorting them out.
Butane has four carbons. Now there’s two potential ways to organize those carbons – the 4-carbon straight chain (n-butane), and the 3-carbon chain with a methyl group on carbon #2 (2-methyl propane, also known as “isobutane”). Don’t believe me? Try it out for yourself. There’s only two ways to do it.
Now let’s say we have some substituent. For example, let’s make it OH. Let’s remove a hydrogen from butane and replace it with OH. If you look at n-butane, you’ll see there’s really only two ways to do it. You can take it from C-1 (or C-4), in which case you get a primary alcohol (1-butanol, or “n-butanol”). Or you can take it from C-2 (or C-3) in which case you get a secondary alcohol (2-butanol, or “sec-butanol”). We sometimes shorten that to “s-butanol”.
Likewise for the isobutyl skeleton there is two ways to do it. You can replace an H on C-1 (or C-3 or C-4) with OH, in which case you get 2-methyl-1-propanol (“isobutanol”). Or you can replace an H on C-2 with OH, and get 2-methyl-2-propanol (“t-butanol”). Those are the only two ways to do it!
This applies to other groups too. So if we used Cl instead of OH, we’d have n-butyl chloride, s-butyl chloride, t-butyl chloride, and isobutyl chloride. And if we used some other group, those four names – n-butyl, s-butyl, t-butyl or isobutyl – all remain the same.

So here’s the punch line for butyl.
- 1-butyl (“n-butyl” where “n” stands for “normal”)
- 2-butyl (“s-butyl” where “s” stands for “secondary”)
- 2-methyl-1-propyl (“isobutyl”)
- 2-methyl-2-propyl (“t-butyl”)
Related Posts:
00 General Chemistry Review
- Gen Chem and Organic Chem: How are they different?
- How Gen Chem Relates to Organic Chem, Pt. 1 - The Atom
- From Gen Chem to Organic Chem, Pt. 2 - Electrons and Orbitals
- From Gen Chem to Organic Chem, Pt. 3 - Effective Nuclear Charge
- From Gen Chem to Organic Chem, Pt. 4 - Chemical Bonding
- From Gen Chem to Organic Chem, Pt. 5 - Understanding Periodic Trends
- From Gen Chem to Org Chem, Pt. 6 - Lewis Structures, A Parable
- From Gen Chem to Org Chem, Pt. 7 - Lewis Structures
- From Gen Chem to Org Chem, Pt. 8 - Ionic and Covalent Bonding
- From Gen Chem to Org Chem, Pt. 9 - Acids and Bases
- From Gen Chem to Organic Chem, Pt. 10 - Hess' Law
- From Gen Chem to Organic Chem, Pt. 11 - The Second Law
- From Gen Chem to Org Chem Pt. 12 - Kinetics
- From Gen Chem to Organic Chem, Pt. 13 - Equilibria
- From Gen Chem to Organic Chem, Part 14: Wrapup
01 Bonding, Structure, and Resonance
- How Concepts Build Up In Org 1 ("The Pyramid")
- Review of Atomic Orbitals for Organic Chemistry
- How Do We Know Methane Is Tetrahedral?
- Hybrid Orbitals
- A Hybridization Shortcut
- Hybridization And Bond Strengths
- Sigma bonds come in six varieties: Pi bonds come in one
- A Key Skill: How to Calculate Formal Charge
- Partial Charges Give Clues About Electron Flow
- The Four Intermolecular Forces and How They Affect Boiling Points
- 3 Trends That Affect Boiling Points
- How To Use Electronegativity To Determine Electron Density (and why NOT to trust formal charge)
- Introduction to Resonance
- How To Use Curved Arrows To Interchange Resonance Forms
- Evaluating Resonance Forms (1) - The Rule of Least Charges
- Evaluating Resonance Forms (2): Applying Electronegativity
- Evaluating Resonance Forms: Factors That Stabilize Negative Charges
- Evaluating Resonance Forms (4): Positive Charges
- Exploring Resonance: Pi-Donation
- Exploring Resonance: Pi-acceptors
- In Summary: Resonance
- Drawing Resonance Structures: 3 Common Mistakes To Avoid
- How to apply electronegativity and resonance to understand reactivity
02 Acid Base Reactions
- Introduction to Acid-Base Reactions
- Walkthrough of Acid Base Reactions (1)
- Walkthrough of Acid Base Reactions (2): Basicity
- Walkthrough of Acid-Base Reactions (3) - Acidity Trends
- Five Key Factors That Influence Acidity
- Walkthrough of Acid-Base reactions (4) - pKa
- How to Use a pKa Table
- The pKa Table Is Your Friend
- A Handy Rule of Thumb for Acid-Base Reactions
- Acid Base Reactions Are Fast
- Putting Acidity In Perspective
- Acid Base Reactions: What's the Point?
03 Alkanes and Nomenclature
- Summary Sheet - Alkane Nomenclature
- Meet the (Most Important) Functional Groups
- Condensed Formulas: Deciphering What the Brackets Mean
- Hidden Hydrogens, Hidden Lone Pairs, Hidden Counterions
- Don't Be Futyl, Learn The Butyls
- Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary In Organic Chemistry
- Branching, and Its Affect On Melting and Boiling Points
- The Many, Many Ways of Drawing Butane
- Common Mistakes: Drawing Tetrahedral Carbons
- Common Mistakes in Organic Chemistry: Pentavalent Carbon
- Table of Functional Group Priorities for Nomenclature
- Organic Chemistry IUPAC Nomenclature Demystified With A Simple Puzzle Piece Approach
04 Conformations and Cycloalkanes
- Conformations
- Newman Projections
- Putting the Newman into ACTION
- Introduction to Cycloalkanes (1)
- Cis And Trans Cycloalkanes
- Cycloalkanes - How To Calculate Ring Strain
- Cycloalkanes - Ring Strain In Cyclopropane And Cyclobutane
- Ring Strain in Cyclopentane and Cyclohexane
- An Aerial Tour Of The Cyclohexane Chair
- How To Draw A Cyclohexane Chair
- The Cyclohexane Chair Flip
- The Cyclohexane Chair Flip - Energy Diagram
- Substituted Cyclohexanes - Equatorial vs Axial
- Substituted Cyclohexanes: "A Values"
- The Ups and Downs of Cyclohexanes
- Which Cyclohexane Chair Is Of Lower Energy?
- Fused Rings
- Bridged Bicyclic Rings (And How To Name Them)
- Bredt's Rule (And Summary of Cycloalkanes)
05 A Primer On Organic Reactions
- The Most Important Question To Ask When Learning a New Reaction
- The 4 Major Classes of Reactions in Org 1
- Learning New Reactions: How Do The Electrons Move?
- How (and why) electrons flow
- The Third Most Important Question to Ask When Learning A New Reaction
- 7 Factors that stabilize negative charge in organic chemistry
- 7 Factors That Stabilize Positive Charge in Organic Chemistry
- Common Mistakes: Formal Charges Can Mislead
- Nucleophiles and Electrophiles
- Curved Arrows (for reactions)
- Curved Arrows (2): Initial Tails and Final Heads
- Nucleophilicity vs. Basicity
- The Three Classes of Nucleophiles
- What Makes A Good Nucleophile?
- Leaving Groups Are Nucleophiles Acting In Reverse
- What makes a good leaving group?
- 3 Factors That Stabilize Carbocations
- Three Factors that Destabilize Carbocations
- What's a Transition State?
- Hammond's Postulate
- Grossman's Rule
- Draw The Ugly Version First
- Learning Reactions: A Checklist (PDF)
- Introduction to Addition Reactions
- Introduction to Elimination Reactions
- Introduction to Free Radical Substitution Reactions
- Introduction to Oxidative Cleavage Reactions
06 Free Radical Reactions
- Bond Dissociation Energies = Homolytic Cleavage
- Free Radical Reactions
- 3 Factors That Stabilize Free Radicals
- What Factors Destabilize Free Radicals?
- Bond Strengths And Radical Stability
- Free Radical Initiation: Why Is "Light" Or "Heat" Required?
- Initiation, Propagation, Termination
- Isomers From Free Radical Reactions
- Selectivity In Free Radical Reactions
- Selectivity in Free Radical Reactions: Bromine vs. Chlorine
- Halogenation At Tiffany's
- Allylic Bromination
- Bonus Topic: Allylic Rearrangements
- In Summary: Free Radicals
- Synthesis (2) - Reactions of Alkanes
07 Stereochemistry and Chirality
- On Cats, Part 4: Enantiocats
- On Cats, Part 6: Stereocenters
- The Single Swap Rule
- Introduction to Assigning (R) and (S): The Cahn-Ingold-Prelog Rules
- Determining R/S (2) - The Method of Dots
- Types of Isomers: Constitutional Isomers, Stereoisomers, Enantiomers, and Diastereomers
- Enantiomers vs Diastereomers vs The Same? Two Methods For Solving Problems
- Assigning R/S To Newman Projections (And Converting Newman To Line Diagrams)
- The Meso Trap
- Optical Rotation, Optical Activity, and Specific Rotation
- Optical Purity and Enantiomeric Excess
- What's a Racemic Mixture?
- Chiral Allenes And Chiral Axes
08 Substitution Reactions
- Introduction to Nucleophilic Substitution Reactions
- Walkthrough of Substitution Reactions (1) - Introduction
- Two Types of Substitution Reactions
- The SN2 Mechanism
- Why the SN2 Reaction Is Powerful
- The SN1 Mechanism
- The Conjugate Acid Is A Better Leaving Group
- Comparing the SN1 and SN2 Reactions
- Polar Protic? Polar Aprotic? Nonpolar? All About Solvents
- Steric Hindrance is Like a Fat Goalie
- Common Blind Spot: Intramolecular Reactions
- The Conjugate Base is Always a Stronger Nucleophile
09 Elimination Reactions
- Walkthrough of Elimination Reactions (1)
- Elimination Reactions (2): Zaitsev's Rule
- Elimination Reactions Are Favored By Heat
- Two Types of Elimination Reactions
- The E1 Reaction
- The E2 Mechanism
- Comparing the E1 and E2 Reactions
- The E2 Reaction and Cyclohexane Rings
- Bulky Bases in Elimination Reactions
- Comparing the E1 and SN1 Reactions
- Elimination (E1) Reactions With Rearrangements
10 Rearrangements
11 SN1/SN2/E1/E2 Decision
12 Alkene Reactions
- Alkene Nomenclature: Cis and Trans and E and Z
- Addition Reactions: Elimination's Opposite
- Selective vs. Specific
- Addition Reactions: Regioselectivity
- Addition Reactions: Stereochemistry
- Markovnikov's Rule (1)
- Markovnikov's Rule (2) - Why It Works
- Curved Arrows and Addition Reactions
- Addition Pattern #1: The "Carbocation Pathway"
- Rearrangements in Alkene Addition Reactions
- Bromination of Alkenes - How Does It Work?
- Bromination of Alkenes: The Mechanism
- Alkene Addition Pattern #2: The "Three-Membered Ring" Pathway
- Hydroboration of Alkenes
- Hydroboration of Alkenes: The Mechanism
- Alkene Addition Pattern #3: The "Concerted" Pathway
- An Arrow-Pushing Dilemma In Concerted Reactions
- A Fourth Alkene Addition Pattern - Free Radical Addition
- Alkene Reactions: Ozonolysis
- Summary: Alkene Reaction Pathways
- Synthesis (4) - Reactions of Alkenes
13 Alkyne Reactions
- The 2 Most Important Reactions of Alkynes
- Partial Reduction of Alkynes To Obtain Cis or Trans Alkenes
- Hydroboration and Oxymercuration of Alkynes
- Alkyne Reaction Patterns - The Carbocation Pathway
- Alkyne Addition Reactions: The 3-Membered Ring Pathway
- Alkyne Addition Reactions - The "Concerted" Pathway
- Alkynes Via Elimination Reactions
- Alkynes Are A Blank Canvas
- Synthesis (5) - Reactions of Alkynes
14 Alcohols, Epoxides and Ethers
- Alcohols (1) - Nomenclature and Properties
- How To Make Alcohols More Reactive
- Alcohols (3) - Acidity and Basicity
- The Williamson Ether Synthesis
- Williamson Ether Synthesis: Planning
- Synthesis of Ethers (2) - Back To The Future
- Ether Synthesis Via Alcohols And Acid
- Cleavage Of Ethers With Acid
- Epoxides - The Outlier Of The Ether Family
- Opening Of Epoxide With Base
- Opening of Epoxides With Acid
- Making Alkyl Halides From Alcohols
- Tosylates And Mesylates
- PBr3 and SOCl2
- Elimination Reactions of Alcohols
- Elimination of Alcohols To Alkenes With POCl3
- Alcohol Oxidation: "Strong" and "Weak" Oxidants
- Demystifying Alcohol Oxidations
- Intramolecular Reactions of Alcohols and Ethers
- Protecting Groups For Alcohols
- Thiols And Thioethers
- Calculating the oxidation state of a carbon
- Oxidation and Reduction in Organic Chemistry
- Oxidation Ladders
- SOCl2 and the SNi Mechanism
- Synthesis (6) - Reactions of Alcohols
15 Organometallics
- What's An Organometallic?
- Synthesis of Grignard and Organolithium Reagents
- Organometallics Are Strong Bases
- Reactions of Grignard Reagents
- Protecting Groups In Grignard Reactions
- Synthesis Using Grignard Reagents (1)
- Grignard Reactions And Synthesis (2)
- Gilman Reagents (Organocuprates): How They're Made
- Gilman Reagents (Organocuprates): What They're Used For
- Common Mistakes with Carbonyls: Carboxylic Acids... Are Acids!
- The Heck, Suzuki, and Olefin Metathesis Reactions (And Why They Don't Belong In Most Introductory Organic Chemistry Courses)
- Reaction Map: Reactions of Organometallics
16 Spectroscopy
- Degrees of Unsaturation (Index of Hydrogen Deficiency)
- How Bleach Works: Understanding Colors From Nature
- Introduction To UV-Vis Spectroscopy
- UV-Vis Spectroscopy: Absorbance of Carbonyls
- UV-Vis Spectroscopy: Some Practice Questions
- Bond Vibrations, IR Spectroscopy, and the "Ball and Spring" Model
- Infrared Spectroscopy: A Quick Primer On Interpreting Spectra
- IR Spectroscopy: Some Simple Practice Problems
- Homotopic, Enantiotopic, Diastereotopic
- Liquid Gold: Pheromones In Doe Urine
- Natural Product Isolation (1) - Extraction
- Natural Product Isolation (2) - Purification of Crude Mixtures Overview
- Structure Determination Case Study: Deer Tarsal Gland Pheromone
17 Dienes and MO Theory
- What To Expect In Organic Chemistry 2
- How Concepts Build Up In Org 2
- Are these molecules conjugated?
- Conjugation and Resonance
- Molecular Orbital Diagram For A Simple Pi Bond - Bonding And Antibonding
- Molecular Orbitals of The Allyl Cation, Allyl Radical, and Allyl Anion
- Pi Molecular Orbitals of Butadiene
- Reactions of Dienes: 1,2 and 1,4 Addition
- Thermodynamic and Kinetic Control
- More On 1,2 and 1,4 Additions To Dienes
- s-cis and s-trans
- The Diels-Alder Reaction
- Cyclic Dienes and Dienophiles in the Diels-Alder Reaction
- Stereochemistry of the Diels-Alder Reaction
- Exo vs Endo Products In The Diels Alder: How To Tell Them Apart
- Molecular Orbitals in the Diels Alder Reaction
- Why Are Endo vs Exo Products Favored in the Diels-Alder Reaction?
- Diels-Alder Reaction: Kinetic and Thermodynamic Control
- The Retro Diels-Alder Reaction
- Regiochemistry In The Diels-Alder Reaction
18 Aromaticity
19 Reactions of Aromatic Molecules
- Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Introduction
- Activating and Deactivating Groups In Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution
- Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution - The Mechanism
- Ortho-, Para- and Meta- Directors in Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution
- Understanding Ortho, Para, and Meta Directors
- Why are halogens ortho- para- directors?
- Disubstituted Benzenes: The Strongest Electron-Donor "Wins"
- Electrophilic Aromatic Substitutions (1) - Halogenation
- Electrophilic Aromatic Substitutions (2) - Nitration and Sulfonation
- EAS Reactions (3) - Friedel-Crafts Acylation and Friedel-Crafts Alkylation
- Intramolecular Friedel-Crafts Reactions
- Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution (NAS)
- Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution (2) - The Benzyne Mechanism
- Reactions of Diazonium Salts: Sandmeyer and Related Reactions
- Reactions on the "Benzylic" Carbon: Bromination And Oxidation
- The Wolff-Kishner, Clemmensen, And Other Carbonyl Reductions
- More Reactions on the Aromatic Sidechain: Reduction of Nitro Groups and the Baeyer Villiger
- Aromatic Synthesis (1) - "Order Of Operations"
- Aromatic Synthesis (2) - Polarity Reversal
- Aromatic Synthesis (3) - Sulfonyl Blocking Groups
- Synthesis (7): Reaction Map of Benzene and Related Aromatic Compounds
20 Aldehydes and Ketones
- Weird Nomenclature In Carbonyl Chemistry
- The Simple Two-Step Pattern For Seven Key Reactions of Aldehydes and Ketones
- Wittig Reaction
- Imines and Enamines
- Acid Catalysis Of Carbonyl Addition Reactions: Too Much Of A Good Thing?
- On Acetals and Hemiacetals
- Carbonyl Chemistry: 10 Key Concepts (Part 1)
- Carbonyls: 10 key concepts (Part 2)
- Breaking Down Carbonyl Reaction Mechanisms: Anionic Nucleophiles (Part 1)
- Breaking Down Carbonyl Reaction Mechanisms: Reactions of Anionic Nucleophiles (Part 2)
21 Carboxylic Acid Derivatives
- Simplifying the reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives (part 1)
- Carbonyl Mechanisms: Neutral Nucleophiles, Part 1
- Carbonyl chemistry: Anionic versus Neutral Nucleophiles
- Proton Transfers Can Be Tricky
- Let's Talk About the [1,2] Elimination
- Carbonyl Chemistry: Learn Six Mechanisms For the Price Of One
- Summary Sheet #5 - 9 Key Mechanisms in Carbonyl Chemistry
- Summary Sheet #7 - 21 Carbonyl Mechanisms on 1 page
- How Reactions Are Like Music
- Making Music With Mechanisms
- The Magic Wand of Proton Transfer
- The Power of Acid Catalysis
22 Enols and Enolates
23 Amines
- Amides: Properties, Synthesis, and Nomenclature
- Basicity of Amines And pKaH
- 5 Factors That Affect Basicity of Amines
- The Mesomeric Effect And Aromatic Amines
- Nucleophilicity of Amines
- Alkylation of Amines (Sucks)
- Reductive Amination
- The Gabriel Synthesis
- Some Reactions of Azides
- The Hofmann Elimination
- The Hofmann and Curtius Rearrangements
- The Cope Elimination
- Protecting Groups for Amines - Carbamates
- Introduction to Peptide Synthesis
- The Strecker Synthesis of Amino Acids
24 Carbohydrates
- D and L Sugars
- What is Mutarotation?
- Reducing Sugars
- Pyranoses and Furanoses: Ring-Chain Tautomerism In Sugars
- The Big Damn Post Of Sugar Nomenclature
- The Haworth Projection
- Converting a Fischer Projection To A Haworth (And Vice Versa)
- Reactions of Sugars: Glycosylation and Protection
- The Ruff Degradation and Kiliani-Fischer Synthesis
25 Fun and Miscellaneous
- Organic Chemistry and the New MCAT
- A Gallery of Some Interesting Molecules From Nature
- The Organic Chemistry Behind "The Pill"
- Maybe they should call them, "Formal Wins" ?
- Introduction To Synthesis
- Organic Chemistry Is Shit
- The 8 Types of Arrows In Organic Chemistry, Explained
- The Most Annoying Exceptions in Org 1 (Part 1)
- The Most Annoying Exceptions in Org 1 (Part 2)
- Org 1 Review Quizzes
- Screw Organic Chemistry, I'm Just Going To Write About Cats
- On Cats, Part 1: Conformations and Configurations
- On Cats, Part 2: Cat Line Diagrams
- The Marriage May Be Bad, But the Divorce Still Costs Money
- Why Do Organic Chemists Use Kilocalories?
- What Holds The Nucleus Together?
- 9 Nomenclature Conventions To Know
thank you very much with your great work, we need more people like you who inspire students to try and do best….can i please get soft copy of your organic 2 notes.
thank you.
Thank you so much. :) Helped ALOT :D
I have a quesion! Are isobutyl alcohal and t butyl alcohal postition isomers or chain isomers?
Constitutional isomers. The terms “positional” and “chain” isomers are not familiar to me, but if I interpret their use correctly they are position isomers.
Actually they aren’t isomers because they don’t have the same molecular formula. Iso butyl alc.has formula c4h9o while the latter has c4h10o.
“Anshyt” Your answer is absolutely wrong. Because alkyl group has general formula CnH2n+1 and one subsituent is attach on it. But if it ha H10 then there is no space for -OH group. So the are positional isomers of eachother
Actually they ARE isomers because they DO have the same molecular formula. both have the chemical formula: C4H10O
take a look at the 3D structure of both molecules (making sure that the structures show the Hydrogens), and count the hydrogens… you will end up with ten hydrogens total, including the hydrogen from the OH group.
Really helpful, thanks! I was trying to purely memorize which name went with which butyl, and I figured there had to be a logical explanation behind the name. You explained it really well.
Thanks Chloe!
Very helpful. Read the section in my text several times, couldn’t figure out the difference between secondary and iso forms. Read your explanation once. Got it.
Great, glad you found it helpful!
1-butylchloride should actually be called 1-chlorobutane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Chlorobutane)
1-butylchloride — Common naming
1-chlorobutane —IUPAC naming
…….this is just how the chemistry nomenclature is….a littale confusing (^.^)~
At the end where you go from Neopentane to Neopentyl Alcohol would the formula change to 2,2-dimethylpropanol because you added the OH?
Yes it would!
Keep Up the Excellent Work! Its great to see individuals, such as yourself, helping students in need.
This was so helpful!
Can this apply to different carbon chains that are greater than butane?
For example is it possible to have a tert-hexanol or isoheptane?
Hi – no, it only applies to butane. There are so many isomers possible for chains higher than 4 that the prefixes “tert”, “iso” and so on would not refer to unique isomers.
what should be the IUPAC nomenclature for t-Butyl group? In Wikipedia it is given as 1,1-dimethylethyl.I am confused
Thank you so much. :) Helped ALOT :D
This section was really helpful.. But can you assure me that these terms (sec,neo,tert,iso) will not comes for others except butane.??As in your section you were specific about butane.. You were not general
sec, tert, only apply to butane. iso applies to butyl and propyl. neo only applies to pentane.
Best find ever! Love the whole website.
The names isopropanol, sec-butanol and tert-butanol are incorrect, although quite spread over the scientific community. In substitutive nomenclature of alcohols the hydroxyl group as principal group is indicated by a suffix “ol”, with elision of terminal “e” (if present) from the name of the parent compound: methanol, ethanol… Isopropane, sec-butane and tert-butane don’t exist. The problem comes from the way we write these compounds: i-PrOH, s-BuOH and t-BuOH, which mean isopropyl alcohol, sec-butyl alcohol and tert-butyl alcohol, all correct names, where i-Pr, s-Bu and t-Bu stand for isopropyl, sec-butyl and tert-butyl but NEVER for isopropane, sec-butane and tert-butane. I don’t think it’s appropriate to teach people to use wrong terms, although I agree that those wrong spread names should be commented as a note. Well, this is my humble opinion…
They’re not wrong names – they’re just common names AND they are widely used so it is completely appropriate to discuss them.
They are “common wrong names”. As I wrote, they should be commented (and encourage people not to use them).
I’ve got my nomenclature test tomorrow, I learn more from here than my classes.
This is for u James Ashenhurst
Chain isomerism is change in skeleton.
For eg- CH3-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH3 is pentane
CH3
|
CH3-CH-CH2-CH3 is also pentane but there
is change in structure.
Whereas position isomerism is change in position of substituents.
For eg- CH3-CH2-CH2-CH2-Cl
Cl
|
CH3-CH2-CH-CH3 here u can see there is change in position of halogen chlorine
Hope my effort would clear or doubt.
Hi,
This was VERY unhelpful because you used line structures to explain shows things and I was literally unable to learn S!**. It is not because I’m a 7th grader with a pre-pubeceant boner for Orgo chem, but trying to imagine what a bunch of lines and A FUCKING SQUIGGLY line represents ON TOP of trying to learn the new nomenclature just really pisses off. I appreciate you TRYING to help, but please don’t be a lazy ass motherfucker and draw everything in lewis structure so that I don’t have to think twice as hard to learn. I’m sorry this is mean, but I have my exam in 3 hours and just realized I had to learn this and my blood pressure is THROUGH THE ROOF :)
Cordially,
JD
Understanding Lewis diagrams is, possibly, the most basic skill you need for organic chemistry. Almost every resource available about o-chem depends on Lewis diagrams to explain structure and behavior.
I’m going to assume that you struggled with your exam, but best luck on learning diagrams for the next test.
What’s the difference between isobutane and secondary butane??
Remember the difference between “alkane” and “alkyl” is that we remove a hydrogen and attach “something”. For instance “methyl” is methane where an H has been removed, and we’ve stuck the remaining CH3 on something (like methyl alcohol for example)
There is no “secondary butane” but there is “sec-butyl” which is when we take a hydrogen off of C2 of butane and stick it on something.
Isobutane is the molecule formally called “2-methylpropane” . If we take a hydrogen from one of the methyl groups of isobutane and stick it on something, it is often called, “isobutyl” . For example, isobutyl chloride.
What about stereo-isomers? For instance, are there not 2 forms of 2-butanol?
There are, but that subject has generally not come up by the time people learn about isomers of alkanes.
can we name text butyl (1,1-dimethylethyl)?
Yes
in alphabetical order the prefix iso- and neo- are considerd to be the part of fundamental ne of alkyle group but prefix sec- and tert- are not considered to be part of the fundamental name. why so ???
Don’t ask me, ask IUPAC.
Why is isobutyl bromide not a secondary Alkyl halide?
The carbon attached to the bromine is itself only attached to one carbon.
Oh my god! Im so glad i stumbles across this website. This helps me a lot in understanding the butyl. The punch line is great. i have test tomorrow and now i can finally understand how to differentiate iso, t, and sec butyl + gains new knowledge, the neopentane! Lovely!
hi,
i would like to know does tetra butyl titanium differ with tetra-n-butyl titanium???
Assume that “butyl” refers to n-butyl unless told otherwise.
Thank you so much for this!!! So helpful
Glad you find it helpful Winnie!
What is the formula for sec-butyl alkyl group?
Sec-butyl chloride is CH3-CHCl-CH2-CH3 . So the formula for the sec-butyl group by itself would just be CH3-CH-CH2-CH3 . [C4H9]
What is the difference between sec butyl and iso butyl ?plz help me sir … m very confused between the two …. both of them are butyl but what is it that causes one to be called sec and other as iso?
It’s in the article. I don’t know how to make it any simpler.