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Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
CHAPTER 3
An Introduction to Organic Compounds
Nomenclature, Physical Properties, and Structure
Important Terms
alcohol
a compound with an OH group in place of one of the hydrogens of an alkane (ROH).
alkane
a hydrocarbon that contains only single bonds.
alkyl halide
a compound with a halogen in place of one of the hydrogens of an alkane.
alkyl substituent
a substituent formed by removing a hydrogen from an alkane.
amine
a compound in which one or more of the hydrogens of
NH
3
are replaced by an
alkyl substituent
1
RNH
2
, R
2
NH, R
3
N
2
.
angle strain
the strain introduced into a molecule as a result of its bond angles being distorted
from their ideal values.
anti conformer
the staggered conformer in which the largest substituents bonded to the two
carbons are opposite each other. It is the most stable of the staggered conformers.
axial bond
a bond of the chair conformer of cyclohexane that points directly up or directly down.
boat conformer
a conformer of cyclohexane that roughly resembles a boat.
boiling point
the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid equals the atmospheric pressure.
chair conformer
a conformer of cyclohexane that roughly resembles a chair. It is the most stable
conformer of cyclohexane.
cis fused
two rings fused together in such a way that if the second ring were considered to
be two substituents of the first ring, the two substituents would be on the same side
of the first ring.
cis isomer
the isomer with two substituents on the same side of the ring.
(for a cyclic compound)
cis-trans stereoisomers
see the definition of “cis isomer” and “trans isomer.”
common name
nonsystematic nomenclature.
conformation
the three-dimensional shape of a molecule at a given instant.
conformers
different conformations of a molecule.
constitutional isomers
molecules that have the same molecular formula but differ in the way the
(structural isomers)
atoms are connected.