Introductory Organic and Biochemistry

Name these chemicals

Answer key (partial)
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A chemical company published an advertisement for a dozen new products. I think you can have some fun working on the names for them. Since the ad is from the real world, the compounds do not correspond to what we have covered. But most are close enough that I think you can at least do question #2 below.

I suggest that you start by glancing at the structures, then reading the two questions at the end. Depending on your background, you might try question #1; it is rather difficult, but even doing some of them would be good. Then go on and do #2. Since #2 is organized more as a puzzle to work out, students with even a limited background in organic can probably figure it out.


Here are the 12 chemicals:

Structures, part 1
Structures, part 2
Structures, part 3

In these structures, Et = ethyl; Ph = phenyl. (Those are standard abbreviations.) The structures are from an ad in Modern Drug Discovery 9/04, p 47.

1. [optional] Try to name as many of these compounds as you can. This question is fairly advanced, but some of you may want to give it a try. Reasons it is hard include numerous common names we have not gotten to, numbering systems that are not obvious, and even some unusual functional groups. I do think you can name two of them, and with a bit of stretch you might name a couple more. Don't panic. But if you are going to do this, you probably should try it before doing #2.

2. Here are the names of those 12 chemicals -- in random order. Your goal is to match the names to the chemicals. There is a 1:1 correspondence (that is, each name is used exactly once), which of course will help you work out the matching. As you make the matches, some features of the names may become clearer.

2-ethoxy-1-naphthaldehyde
2-formylbenzeneboronic acid
2-methyl-5-nitrobenzothiazole
N-isopropylpiperazine
4-(methylthio)benzoic acid
5-iodo-2-methoxyaniline
ethyl 6-amino-5-methoxyindole-2-carboxylate
malonamamidine hydrochloride
methyl 5-bromopyridine-2-carboxylate
N-(diphenylmethylene)glycine ethyl ester
2-amino-3,4-dimethylbenzoic acid
1-methyl-2-formylbenzimidazole


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Answer key. If you think you have other possible names for some of these, check with me.

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Last update: January 4, 2009

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