Aldehydes

=Aldehydes, a Cannon in A minor= By Ben Hamme

General Knowlege:
Aldehydes are organic compounds that have a central carbonyl group (the carbon double bonded to the oxygen). The aldehyde is actually the the whole structure showed above not including the R; the formula is O=CH-. Aldehydes are sometimes referred to as formyl or methanoyl groups. The word aldehyde is actually created from **al**cohol **dehyd**rogenated. Sometimes aldehydes are named after the alcohols they correspond to.

Nomenclature:
There are a few ways the aldehydes are named.
 * 1) Carbon chains: The aldehyde is named based off the amount of carbon atoms in the compound. The length of the carbon chain will be related to a hydrocarbon and the name of the hydrocarbon will be used in the name of the aldehyde. Ex: CH3CH2CH2CHO has 4 carbons and butane has 4 carbons therefore the aldehyde is named butanal. The easy way: [Hydrocarbon name] - [the e at the end] + [al] = [name of the aldehyde]
 * 2) Rings: If the aldehyde is attached to a ring structure, it will be named using the suffix -carbaldehyde. So something like C6H11CHO would be known as cyclohexanecarbaldehyde. If there are other functional groups in the structure and a prefix is needed, the prefix formyl- is preferred over methanoyl-.
 * 3) Carboxylic acids: If there is a carboxylic acid attached to the aldehyde, they prefix oxo- is used before the name of the acid.
 * 4) Other case: If the aldehyde would make an awkwardly named acid if a carboxyl group were added in place of the aldehyde group, the aldehyde can be named by taking the -ic acid ending off the acid and replacing it with -aldehyde. Ex: HCHO would be Formaldehyde.



Sources:
Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldehydes Pictures:
 * http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Aldehyde2.png
 * http://www.chemistrydaily.com/chemistry/upload/9/9e/Iupac-aldehyde.png