Fused ring names

(a)

furan (trivial, retained) oxole (Hantzsch-Widman)

Knowing that the structure (a) is called furan, let’s name the structure (b).

(b)

2-nitrofuran (substitutive)

Easy: 2-nitrofuran.

Keeping that in mind, what kind of structure do you think corresponds to the name ‘2-benzofuran’?

von Baeyer names

Here’s a cute little structure:

(a)

housane (trivial) bicyclo[2.1.0]pentane (von Baeyer)

Drawn like this, (a) looks like a little house and, indeed, is known as a housane. Alexander Senning called this structure “the poor man’s housane” [1, p. 77] while referring to pentaprismane as “the rich man’s housane” [1, p. 78]. Of course, there is a systematic name too.

Bicycles

How many rings has the structure (a)?

(a)

diphenyl ether (functional class) 1,1′-oxydibenzene (multiplicative) phenoxybenzene (substitutive)

Why, there are two, you’ll say. Anybody can see that. And you’ll be right.

What about (b) then?

(b)

norbornane (trivial) bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane (von Baeyer)