I only know from organic chemistry that alpha carbons are for compounds with carbonyl groups. But, does it also apply to nitriles like this on the screenshot?
Dear John,
as an inorganic chemist I'm certainly not the expert to ask, and I actually never thought about this interesting question. However, if you look at the respective Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_and_beta_carbon) you will find that (citation): "The alpha carbon (Cα) in organic molecules refers to the first carbon atom that attaches to a functional group, such as a carbonyl." Thus I would say that the answer to your question is YES, as the nitrile group is a functional group comparable to a carbonyl group.
Good luck wth your research!
John Rey Noga thank you for your question, the alpha position is relative to the functional group wether is carbonyl or other, good luck
Yes you can, it is not only for carbonyl, it is used for many functional groups like nitriles.
Dear Frank T. Edelmann,
Thank you for your answer! I was really wondering if it was an alpha carbon. I encounter a lot of compounds in company catalogs with "?" in their compound names, perhaps because of formatting issues when they post the names of the chemical compounds on their websites. The compound on the screenshot is one of them. Usually, the greek letters on compound names are affected. Sometimes, I can research the ones with "?" and decipher the others if I can. I should really brush up on my nomenclature skills.
Thank you Hamza Chelali and Faiq H S Hussain for your answers as well!
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