Halides & Nitro Compounds

Hydrocarbons (molecules composed of hydrogen and carbon atoms) are the foundation of organic chemistry. They are the base of a organic structure, and we can add side groups to the base! Kind of like a tree! The hydrocarbon chain of the molecule is the roots and the trunk of a tree, and the side groups are the branches! Let's look at some possible "branches":

Halides

Properties

1. Insoluble in water
2. Compounds that contain Iodine are really reactive
3. Compounds that contain Chlorine or Bromine are reactive under certain conditions

List of Halogens

Br = Bromo
Cl = Chloro
F = Fluoro
I = Iodo

**When the molecule contains more than one halogen, we use the suffixes (di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-) to represent it. The suffix goes before the halogen (ex. tetrabromo; diiodo)


Nitros

Properties

1. Usually insoluble in water
2. mostly nreactive unless put under certain conditions
3. have a generally nice odour
4. Likely to be explosive (ex. trinitrotoluene, or TNT)

Nitro
NO2 = Nitro


Naming

Naming of these structures is similar to that of hydrocarbons. You simple count the smallest # of carbon atoms until you reach the halide or nitro and the # goes before the name.

• side groups go before the parent chain
• side groups go in alphabetical order

Ex. Name the structure
                                                  
                                                             2-bromopentane

1. Count the longest chain of carbon atoms, in this case 5, or pentane *each point you see in the picture represents a carbon atom*
2. Count the smallest # of carbon atoms until you hit bromine, in this case, it's 2!