The top 5 most common are the methyl, phenyl, chlorine, methoxy, and hydroxyl substituents.
Table of Contents
What is a substituent group in organic chemistry?
In organic chemistry and biochemistry, a substituent is an atom or group of atoms substituted in place of a hydrogen atom on the parent chain of a hydrocarbon, becoming a moiety of the resultant new molecule.
How do you identify substituents in organic chemistry?

Is chlorine substituent or functional group?
Organic Functional Groups Halogen atoms — fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine — can be found in organic compounds in a couple of different ways. They may be bonded as a substituent on a hydrocarbon structure, such as an alkyl chain (alkyl halides) or a benzene ring (aryl halides).
Are all functional groups substituents?
In organic chemistry, a functional group is a substituent or moiety in a molecule that causes the molecule’s characteristic chemical reactions. The same functional group will undergo the same or similar chemical reactions regardless of the rest of the molecule’s composition.
Which of the following is always considered as substituent?
Therefore, $ – NO_2$ group will be treated as a substituent group in the main chain, and its naming will be done as a prefix in the organic compound. Hence, Option (A) is correct.
What is the difference between substituent and functional group?
The key difference between functional group and substituent is that a functional group is an active part of a molecule whereas a substituent is a chemical species that can replace an atom or a group of atoms in a molecule.
How do you name a substituent group?
we use the di-, tri-, tetra-, etc. We also use the same prefixes for the retained common names like isopropyl or tert-butyl. For the complex substituents, however, we use slightly modified prefixes. For 2 groups it’s bis-, for 3 it’s tris-, tetrakis- for 4, pentakis- for five, etc.
What is the definition of substituent?
Definition of substituent : an atom or group that replaces another atom or group in a molecule.
Can a double bond be a substituent?
When double bonds are present in lower priority substituent branches, they are named as indicated above with the C1 carbon being the point of attachment to the parent chain. As a substituent, the name will end in “yl” as in alkenyl, not alkene.
What are the 7 functional groups?
In biological molecules, some of the essential functional groups include hydroxyl, methyl, carbonyl, carboxyl, amino, phosphate, and sulfhydryl groups. These groups play a significant role in forming molecules such as DNA, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids.
What is the highest priority substituent group?
The higher the atomic number of the immediate substituent atom, the higher the priority. For example, Hโ < Cโ < Nโ < Oโ < Clโ. (Different isotopes of the same element are assigned a priority according to their atomic mass.)
Which has more priority substituent or functional group?
If the compound includes more than one functional group, the one with the highest priority is the “parent structure” and determines the “parent name”; the other groups will be regarded as “substituents”. The “suffix” is used to indicate the name of the parent structure, and the “prefix” is for the substituent.
What is the priority order of substituents?
Alkenes And Alkynes. If carbon-carbon multiple bonds are present in the molecule, they are considered as substituents with a priority (or “seniority”, according to IUPAC) lower than that of amines. So for a molecule with an alkene and an alcohol, the alcohol has priority and the molecule has the suffix, “-ol”.
What are alkyl substituent groups?
An alkane can be appended onto an existing chain to create a branched molecule. This branched piece of the molecule is called a substituent. A substituent made from an alkane is called an alkyl group. Alkyl groups are named similarly to unbranched alkane chains.
How do you name an alkyl group with substituents?
Common names for alkyl substituents Notes: the the prefix iso is not hyphenated. the symbol “R” is commonly used to generically represent an alkyl group, e.g. R-X. the prefixes sec- or s- and tert- or t- are commonly used to indicate specific types of branched substituents.
What is a substituted alkyl group?
In chemistry, alkyl is a group, a substituent, that is attached to other molecular fragments. For example, alkyl lithium reagents have the empirical formula Li(alkyl), where alkyl = methyl, ethyl, etc. A dialkyl ether is an ether with two alkyl groups, e.g., diethyl ether (O(C2H5)2).
Is benzene a substituent?
In some cases, the benzene ring needs to be treated as a substituent. In these cases, the term phenyl, is used to designate the presence of C6H5- as a substituent. The method should be used when the benzene ring is a substituent of the root (the root contains the principle functional group).
When benzene is a substituent?
As this rule suggests that the benzene ring will act as a function group (a substituent) whenever a substituent of more than six (6) carbons is attached to it, the name “benzene” is changed to phenyl and is used the same way as any other substituents, such as methyl, ethyl, or bromo.
Is benzene a functional group?
Illustrated Glossary of Organic Chemistry – Benzene ring. Benzene ring: An aromatic functional group characterized by a ring of six carbon atoms, bonded by alternating single and double bonds.
What is a substituent in alkanes?
ยฉ 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. Alkane Substituents. Substituents are atoms or groups of atoms attached to the carbon chain and include alkyl and halo groups.
How do you name oxygen as a substituent?
The alkyl group plus oxygen atom is called an “alkoxy” substituent and is named by replacing -ane suffix from the alkane with -oxy (e.g. methane becomes methoxy). The allkoxy substituent gets priority over alkyl and halide substituents, but not over alcohols, which will get the lower number.
How do you order substituents?
In summary, the name of the compound is written out with the substituents in alphabetical order followed by the base name (derived from the number of carbons in the parent chain). Commas are used between numbers and dashes are used between letters and numbers.
What are complex substituents?
The chain with more number of side chains forms a part of the longest carbon chain while the other one is considered the complex substituent. On the complex substituent, numbering is done from the end attached to the principal chain.
What is a hydrocarbon substituent called?
The names of the substituents, or alkyl groups, are derived from the names of the parent hydrocarbons; however, rather than having the ending โane, the substituent name has the ending โyl (Table 16.2 “Substituent Names for the Five Smallest Substituents.”).