Developing An Organic Chemistry Naming Practice

Developing An Organic Chemistry Naming PracticeWhen you create a chemical naming practice, you may find that it provides a solid basis for naming a number of organic chemistry classes. In addition, your organic chemistry teaching and learning materials will reflect a style and approach that are very relevant to the current research in the field.The development of an organic chemistry naming practice is always guided by two basic considerations. First, your course description should relate to the natural world. In other words, you should never 'invent' names for natural products or compounds in order to make your class description more interesting and easy to read. Instead, you should build on real and conventional scientific naming practices in your text.Second, name the chemical's functional group. A naming practice that contains a note about a particular function may be out of the question if you are working with a large group of chemical compounds. In most cases, a complete listin g of all the functional groups should be provided at the beginning of the unit. This will enable your students to see what the compound is designed to do.You may also want to consider the natural process of naming. In short, the most important natural feature of a compound is its molecular structure. Consequently, most natural substances do not change their chemical names as a result of chemical reactions. What does this mean?Some names have to be recorded because they provide important information. For example, strychnine's chemical name is YClO. As we all know, strychnine was formerly a colorless poison, so it can sometimes become part of the food supply. The new strychnine is now a treatment for the use of headache. In the natural naming practice, you can simply record this important fact.Many textbooks are written to improve your organic chemistry naming practice. These kinds of books also include topics such as efficient chemistries, organic chemistry solution theory, biocataly sis, and chemical structure. A well-designed textbook provides enough material for a fairly comprehensive treatment of the subject.However, in addition to the various formal methods, you may also want to consider the use of local conventions in a given field. There are many online lists of different types of organic chemical names.