The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of

National Adhering Organizations National Adhering Organizations (NAO) in chemistry are the organizations that work as the authoritative power over chemistry in an individual country.International Science Council (ISC). IUPAC is registered in Zürich,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and the administrative office, known as the "IUPAC Secretariat", is in

Research Triangle Park Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States, occupying in North Carolina and hosting more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. The facility is named for its location relative to the three surrounding cities ...

, North Carolina, United States. This administrative office is headed by IUPAC's executive director, currently Greta Heydenrych. IUPAC was established in 1919 as the successor of the International Congress of Applied Chemistry for the advancement of

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

. Its members, the National Adhering Organizations, can be national

chemistry societies Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, properties, ...

, national

academies of sciences An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

, or other bodies representing chemists. There are fifty-four National Adhering Organizations and three Associate National Adhering Organizations. IUPAC's Inter-divisional Committee on Nomenclature and Symbols ( IUPAC nomenclature) is the recognized world authority in developing standards for the naming of the

chemical elements A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler sub ...

and compounds. Since its creation, IUPAC has been run by many different committees with different responsibilities.IUPAC Committees list
. Retrieved 15 April 2010. These committees run different projects which include standardizing nomenclature,Interdivisional Committee on Terminology web page
. Retrieved 15 April 2010. finding ways to bring chemistry to the world,Chemdrawn
. Retrieved 15 April 2010. and publishing works.Pure and Applied Chemistry Editorial Advisory Board web page
. Retrieved 15 April 2010.Evaluation Committee page
. Retrieved 15 April 2010. IUPAC is best known for its works standardizing nomenclature in chemistry, but IUPAC has publications in many science fields including chemistry, biology and physics. Some important work IUPAC has done in these fields includes standardizing nucleotide base sequence code names; publishing books for environmental scientists, chemists, and physicists; and improving education in science.IYC: Introduction
. 9 July 2009. Retrieved on 17 February 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2010. IUPAC is also known for standardizing the atomic weights of the elements through one of its oldest standing committees, the Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (CIAAW).

Creation and history

The need for an international standard for chemistry was first addressed in 1860 by a committee headed by German scientist

Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz Friedrich may refer to: Names * Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' * Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' Other * Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Year ...

. This committee was the first international conference to create an international naming system for organic compounds. The ideas that were formulated in that conference evolved into the official IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry. IUPAC stands as a legacy of this meeting, making it one of the most important historical international collaborations of

. Since this time, IUPAC has been the official organization held with the responsibility of updating and maintaining official

organic nomenclature In chemical nomenclature, the IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry is a method of naming organic chemical compounds as recommended by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). It is published in the '' Nomenclature of ...

. IUPAC as such was established in 1919. One notable country excluded from this early IUPAC is Germany. Germany's exclusion was a result of prejudice towards Germans by the Allied powers after World War I. Germany was finally admitted into IUPAC during 1929. However, Nazi Germany was removed from IUPAC during World War II. During World War II, IUPAC was affiliated with the Allied powers, but had little involvement during the war effort itself. After the war, East and West Germany were readmitted to IUPAC in 1973. Since World War II, IUPAC has been focused on standardizing nomenclature and methods in science without interruption. In 2016, IUPAC denounced the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon. The organization pointed out their concerns in a letter to Ahmet Üzümcü, the director of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), in regards to the practice of utilizing chlorine for weapon usage in Syria among other locations. The letter stated, "Our organizations deplore the use of chlorine in this manner. The indiscriminate attacks, possibly carried out by a member state of the

Chemical Weapons Convention The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), officially the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, is an arms control treaty administered by the Organisation for ...

(CWC), is of concern to chemical scientists and engineers around the globe and we stand ready to support your mission of implementing the CWC." According to the CWC, "the use, stockpiling, distribution, development or storage of any chemical weapons is forbidden by any of the 192 state party signatories."

Committees and governance

IUPAC is governed by several committees that all have different responsibilities. The committees are as follows: Bureau, CHEMRAWN (Chem Research Applied to World Needs) Committee, Committee on Chemistry Education, Committee on Chemistry and Industry, Committee on Printed and Electronic Publications, Evaluation Committee, Executive Committee, Finance Committee, Interdivisional Committee on Terminology, Nomenclature and Symbols, Project Committee, and Pure and Applied Chemistry Editorial Advisory Board. Each committee is made up of members of different National Adhering Organizations from different countries. The steering committee hierarchy for IUPAC is as follows:IUPAC Project Committee
Retrieved 15 April 2010 * All committees have an allotted budget to which they must adhere. * Any committee may start a project. * If a project's spending becomes too much for a committee to continue funding, it must take the issue to the Project Committee. * The project committee either increases the budget or decides on an external funding plan. * The Bureau and Executive Committee oversee operations of the other committees.

Nomenclature

Scientists framed a systematic method for naming the organic compounds based on the structures. Hence as it of rules was formulated by IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) IUPAC Publications List
Retrieved 15 April 2010

Basic spellings

IUPAC establishes rules for harmonized spelling of some chemicals to reduce variation among different local English-language variants. For example, they recommend " aluminium" rather than "aluminum", "

sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

" rather than "sulphur", and "

caesium Caesium (IUPAC spelling) (or cesium in American English) is a chemical element with the symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-golden alkali metal with a melting point of , which makes it one of only five elemental metals that a ...

" rather than "cesium".

Organic nomenclature

IUPAC organic nomenclature has three basic parts: the substituents, carbon chain length, and chemical affix. The substituents are any functional groups attached to the main carbon chain. The main carbon chain is the longest possible continuous chain. The chemical affix denotes what type of molecule it is. For example, the ending ''ane'' denotes a single bonded carbon chain, as in "hexane" (). Another example of IUPAC organic nomenclature is cyclohexanol: Cyclohexanol acsv

* The substituent name for a

ring compound A cyclic compound (or ring compound) is a term for a compound in the field of chemistry in which one or more series of atoms in the compound is connected to form a ring. Rings may vary in size from three to many atoms, and include examples where a ...

is ''cyclo''. * The indication (substituent name) for a six carbon chain is ''hex''. * The chemical ending for a single bonded carbon chain is ''ane''. * The chemical ending for an

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

is ''ol''. * The two chemical endings are combined for an ending of ''anol'' indicating a single bonded carbon chain with an alcohol attached to it.

Inorganic nomenclature

Basic IUPAC inorganic nomenclature has two main parts: the

cation An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

and the anion. The cation is the name for the positively charged ion and the anion is the name for the negatively charged ion. An example of IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry is

potassium chlorate Potassium chlorate is a compound containing potassium, chlorine and oxygen, with the molecular formula KClO3. In its pure form, it is a white crystalline substance. After sodium chlorate, it is the second most common chlorate in industrial use. It ...

(KClO₃):

* " Potassium" is the cation name. * "

Chlorate The chlorate anion has the formula ClO3-. In this case, the chlorine atom is in the +5 oxidation state. "Chlorate" can also refer to chemical compounds containing this anion; chlorates are the salts of chloric acid. "Chlorate", when followed by ...

" is the anion name.

Amino acid and nucleotide base codes

IUPAC also has a system for giving codes to identify amino acids and nucleotide bases. IUPAC needed a coding system that represented long sequences of amino acids. This would allow for these sequences to be compared to try to find homologies.Amino Acid Codes
Retrieved 15 April 2010 These codes can consist of either a one-letter code or a three-letter code. These codes make it easier and shorter to write down the amino acid sequences that make up proteins. The nucleotide bases are made up of purines ( adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines ( cytosine and thymine or uracil). These nucleotide bases make up DNA and

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

. These nucleotide base codes make the genome of an organism much smaller and easier to read.Amino Acid and Nucleotide Base Codes
Retrieved 15 April 2010 The codes for amino acids (24 amino acids and three special codes) are:

Publications

Non-series books

''Experimental Thermodynamics'' book series

The ''Experimental Thermodynamics'' books series covers many topics in the fields of thermodynamics.

Series of books on analytical and physical chemistry of environmental systems

Colored cover book and website series (nomenclature)

IUPAC color code their books in order to make each publication distinguishable.

International Year of Chemistry

IUPAC and UNESCO were the lead organizations coordinating events for the

International Year of Chemistry The International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC 2011) was a year-long commemorative event for the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to humankind.United Nations Resolution 63/209: International Year of Chemistry.
3 February 2009. Retrieved on 24 April 2010.About IYC: Introduction.
9 July 2009. Retrieved on 24 April 2010. The International Year of Chemistry was originally proposed by IUPAC at the general assembly in Turin, Italy. This motion was adopted by UNESCO at a meeting in 2008. The main objectives of the International Year of Chemistry were to increase public appreciation of chemistry and gain more interest in the world of

. This event is also being held to encourage young people to get involved and contribute to chemistry. A further reason for this event being held is to honour how chemistry has made improvements to everyone's way of life.

IUPAC Presidents

IUPAC Presidents are elected by the IUPAC Council during the General Assembly. Below is the list of IUPAC Presidents since its inception in 1919.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Chemical nomenclature Chemistry organizations International scientific organizations Members of the International Council for Science Organisations based in Zürich Organizations based in North Carolina Scientific organizations based in the United States Scientific organisations based in Switzerland Scientific organizations established in 1919 Standards organisations in Switzerland Members of the International Science Council