• Question: How do you name the materials you make?

    Asked by vdmnick to Josh on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Josh Makepeace

      Josh Makepeace answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      That’s a great question, vdmnick! We have a system for naming compounds so that (hopefully) other scientists can understand what you’re making. So for my work, the simplest materials I make are a metal together with a group called an amide (it’s a nitrogen atom with two hydrogens attached to it). So the name is quite easy, it’s just the name of the metal + amide – so lithium amide, sodium amide, potassium amide….the list goes one.

      For more complicated materials, the proper name might be a bit too complicated, so we love to shorten names or give nicknames to molecules. So the real name of TNT is trinitrotoluene, or the name of the pesticide DDT is 1,1-trichloro-2,2-di(4-chlorophenyl)ethane!! You can see why we shorten it! The rules for the proper name of chemicals are decided by a group called the Internation Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

      Hope this helps!

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