Naming Nitriles

Let's learn how to name nitriles. Nitriles are honestly the easiest functional group to name because there's nothing tricky about them. All you’re going to do is you’re going to take the name of your alkane chain and you’re going to add the suffix nitrile to the name. You're not even going to drop the e, so don’t. Don't drop the e. Just literally add the word nitrile at the end. Substituents are named using numbers. They're located using numbers. In this case, this would be five-carbon chain that has a nitrile group on it. This would be pentane nitrile. Notice that I kept the e. Don't drop it because then it’s going to look weird. Pentane nitrile, and that’s it. We’ve got a practice problem. Go ahead and see if you can name it and then I'll give you the answer.

So guys, the only possibly tricky thing about naming nitriles is that you have to remember to include that first carbon in the carbon chain, okay? Meaning, this is your first carbon and it's part of a four carbon chain, this is going to be a butane nitrile and now we just need to name my substituents, which appear to be a 2, 3 dimethyl. So, it's going to be 2, 3 dimethylbutanenitrile. So easy, don't you wish every topic goes like this in orgo? Okay, so then here's another one, go ahead and try to draw it and that will give you the answer.

And here we go, six carbon chain 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Now, that six carbon is part of the nitrile. So, then I would draw triple bond N, okay? Six carbons, this is my one carbon. So, then I have a two amino, that's going to be NH2 and a 4 bromo, that's it. Alright, let's move on to the next topic.