Amines, Amides, Nitro, and Esters

Today we learned four more functional groups. Here is a quick overview of them:

Amines: contain nitrogen. Primary, secondary, or tertiary amines (one/two/three carbon chains). Alphabetical ordering.

Amides: CONH₂ is the amide group. Ending is –(an)amide. Ie. Benzamide. 

Nitro: contains NO₂ which has resonance. It is not a parent chain.

Esters: contain a =O and a –O on the same carbon.

And there you have it! Let’s try identifying some now.

Amines: 

Name: 

This compound is phenyl amide. Another common name is aminobenzene.

Amines can be named in many ways. You can have methylamine, methanamide, or aminomethane and they are all the same. You can sometimes have the amine be a parent chain.

Amides: Amides contain a double bonded oxygen and nitrogen both attached to a carbon. Notice in the diagram there are NH₂ molecules. Other than hydrogens in those spots, we can have more carbon chains. This functional group contains CONH₂; it’s the amide group.

Inspect: 

Molecules containing amides end in –amide. The prefix is simply the number of carbons (including the one in the amide group).

Nitro: functional group if NO₂. It has alternating single and double bonds. It is not used as a parent chain. It has a simple side chain called ‘nitro’ and is preceded in a molecule with a locant.

Name: 

It is: 2-methyl, 1,3,5 trinitrobenzene. It is also called trinitro tuolene, or in other words, TNT.