Question

The IUPAC name of the following compound CH3−CH3|C|CH3−CH3 is .

• A. $2,2-\mathrm{dimethylpropane}$
• B. $1,1,1,1-\mathrm{tetramethylmethane}$
• C. $2-\mathrm{methylbutane}$

Answer 1

The correct option is A $2,2-\mathrm{dimethylpropane}$

The carbon atom at the center has 4 methyl groups attached to it. If you carefully count the number of ways we can choose the longest chain, there would be 6 such ways.

Irrespective of the choice, the central carbon gets numbered '2'. Also there are 2 methyl groups attached to the central carbon atom.

$\therefore$ The primary suffix here is -ane, word root is 'prop' and prefix is 2,2-dimethyl. Hence, the IUPAC name is 2,2-dimethylpropane.