Hello, budding chemists! 👩‍🔬👨‍🔬 Let's dive into the world of alkanes and isomers. Ready to be a naming pro? Let's do it!

🌟 Alkanes: These are the shy ones in the organic world, always avoiding double bonds and keeping things simple with single carbon-carbon bonds. They're "saturated" because they can't take any more hydrogen atoms.

• Find the longest chain: Examine the alkane structure and identify the longest continuous carbon chain. This gives us the "root" name of the alkane based on the number of carbon atoms. Remember, all alkanes have "-ane" as their last name (suffix).
  • Example: An alkane with 6 carbons in the longest chain is called hexane.
• Identify the substituents: If there are any "side branches" or substituents on the main chain, name them based on their carbon count. Just change their last name from "-ane" to "-yl".
  • Example: CH³ becomes methyl.
• Number the carbon chain: Assign numbers to the carbons in the main chain, so the substituents get the lowest numbers possible.
  • Example: In 2-methylhexane, we number from left to right because that gives the methyl group the lowest number (2).
• Write the full name: The substituent name goes first, then a hyphen, then the carbon chain number, and finally the root name.
  • Example: 2-methylhexane (not 5-methylhexane!).
• Alphabetize multiple different substituents: If there are multiple different substituents, list them alphabetically before the root name.
  • Example: 3-ethyl-2-methylhexane (not 2-methyl-3-ethylhexane!).
• Use multipliers for identical substituents: For multiple identical substituents, use a multiplier (di-, tri-, etc.) and separate the locant numbers with a comma.
  • Example: 2,3-dimethylhexane.