Question

Q. Draw the condensed formula and give the name for the product of an addition reaction (hydration). I got the following: CH3-CH2-CH2-CH(OH) -CH3....I need to name the reaction! I forgot where I am supposed to count...is it on the CH? Would that be 1? Is it methylbutanol?

Answer 1

So the rule is to find the longest continuous carbon chain and make that the name of the backbone. So really what you have here is a pentane backbone.

Now you keep the numbers as low as possible, so you have an alcohol on the 2 position, so it's 2-pentanol or pentan-2-ol.

A good way to check is to just google the name and see if there's a wikipedia page for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-Pentanol

Answer 2

Also, if this is an addition reaction of water, then you must have had a double bond in there somewhere, and there are two possibilities, but one of the two is most likely:



That's because the most favorable intermediate to make your product happens with the terminal alkene.