organic chemistry.

The classification of carbon atoms are as follows:

Primary carbon (1 ° )

- when a carbon atom is attached to one other carbon atom

Secondary carbon (2 ° )

- when a carbon atom is attached to two other carbon atoms

Tertiary carbon (3 ° )

- when a carbon atom is attached to three other carbon atoms

Quaternary carbon (4 ° )

- when a carbon atom is attached to four other carbon atoms

Meanwhile, the hydrogen atoms are classified in a similar manner with the carbon atoms.

Primary hydrogen (1 ° )

- are attached to primary carbons

Secondary hydrogen (2 ° )

- are attached to secondary carbons

Tertiary hydrogen (3 ° )

- are attached to tertiary carbons

Cycloalkanes are a type of alkanes that is arranged in a ring-like manner, thus the prefix cyclo-.

The steps in naming cycloalkanes are as follows:

1. Determine the cycloalkane to use as the parent chain. 

Note: The parent chain is the one with the highest number of carbon atoms. 

If two cycloalkanes are present, use the cycloalkane with the higher number of carbons as the parent chain.

2. If there is an alkyl straight chain with more carbons than a cycloalkane, then the alkyl chain must be used as the main parent chain. 

The suffix of a cycloalkane must be changed to -yl when it acts as a substituent in the parent chain.

The following are examples of cycloalkyl groups:

                     source

3. Identify the other cycloalkyl or functional groups present.

4.  Multiple substituents in a carbon should have a lower number than a carbon with only one substituent. 

5. The substituents must be named in alphabetical order.

6. A dash (-) is used between the numbers and the names of the substituents. But when there is only one substituent, it is not necessary to put a dash.

7. Write the all number of carbons depending on the number of times it appears. The numbers should be separated by commas. In the case of multiple substituents, add either the prefixes di-,tri-,tetra-, and etc to the name of the substituent.

Note: The prefixes di-,tri-,tetra- are disregarded in naming with the alphabetical order, the name of the substituent is followed.

8. Place the prefixes cis- or trans- if it occurs in the cycloalkane.

There are steps in order to draw alkanes. There also four ways that the alkanes can be represented: line or skeletal structure, line-bond or expanded structure, condensed structure and semi-condensed structure. 

In drawing alkane structures, these steps must be followed:

1. Draw the carbon atoms in a straight chain with all carbon atoms bonded singularly.

2. Add a single bond to all remaining spaces on the carbon atom such that each carbon atom has four possible bonding sites.

3. Add a hydrogen atom Add one hydrogen atom to the end of every single bonds in the second step.

Examples:

Before proceeding on the steps on how to correctly name and identify alkanes, alkanes should be defined first. Alkanes are hydrocarbons which can only form a single bond unlike alkenes and alkynes which can form double and triple bonds respectively. The IUPAC Nomenclature are the guidelines that are needed to be followed in order to name the alkanes. Take note that the first ten alkanes should be memorized because most of them appear in different IUPAC names. The IUPAC system requires to have names for the unbranched chains and next will be the names for the attached simple alkyl groups. Alkyl groups are named by replacing the suffix "-ane" to "-yl".

Here are the most common alkyl groups:

                                                        source

And now, we can finally proceed to the IUPAC rules regarding alkane nomenclature. The process begins with:

1. Find the longest chain of the carbon atoms as this will give you the name of the parent chain.

Example:

In the figure below, the longest chain is six carbons therefore the parent chain is hexane.

2.  If two chains have the same number of carbons, choose the chain with the most substituents.

3. Number the carbons in the chain starting from the end nearest the first substituent.

Example:

In this structure, we will name the carbons from left to right because is it nearer to the first substituent.

4. If there are substituents that are the same number of carbons in from either end, start the numbering from the end nearest the next substituent

5. Multiplying prefixes are used when a substituent appears more than once. There are also no spaces in the final name.

Example:

There are three instances of the methyl substituent in this alkane therefore it will be called trimethyl.

6. Halogen substituents are given priority in naming