Azane - Nomenclature

Nomenclature

The IUPAC nomenclature (systematic way of naming compounds) for azanes is based on identifying hydronitrogen chains. Unbranched, saturated hydronitrogen chains are named systematically with a Greek numerical prefix denoting the number of nitrogens and the suffix "-azane".

The von Hofmann suggested nomenclature system, uses the sequence of vowels a and e to create suffixes -ane, -ene, for the hydronitrogens. The two name hydronitrogens with single, and double bonds, note that -ine (or -yne) is absent due to the only member of that series (diazyne, or elemental nitrogen) is strictly not a hydronitrogen.

It is difficult or impossible to find compounds with more than one IUPAC name. This is because shorter chains attached to longer chains are prefixes and the convention includes brackets. Numbers in the name, referring to which nitrogen a group is attached to, should be as low as possible, so that 1- is implied and usually omitted from names of organic compounds with only one side-group. Symmetric compounds will have two ways of arriving at the same name.

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