Phanes are abstractions of highly complex organic molecules introduced for simplification of the naming of these highly complex molecules. Systematic nomenclature of

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, ...

consists of building a name for the structure of an

organic compound In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. T ...

by a collection of names of its composite parts but describing also its relative positions within the structure. Naming information is summarised by IUPAC:International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry - Organic Chemistry Division - Commission on nomenclature of organic chemistry https://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/phane/ Phane Nomenclature Part I: Phane Parent Names IUPAC Recommendations 1998 Prepared for publication by W. H. Powell 1436 Havencrest Ct, Columbus, OH 43220-3841, USAPhane Nomenclature Part II: Modification of the Degree of Hydrogenation and Substitution Derivatives of Phane Parent Hydrides
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"Phane nomenclature is a new method for building names for organic structures by assembling names that describe component parts of a complex structure. It is based on the idea that a relatively simple skeleton for a parent hydride can be modified by an operation called 'amplification', a process that replaces one or more special atoms ( superatoms) of a simplified skeleton by multiatomic structures".

Whilst the

cyclophane In organic chemistry, a cyclophane is a hydrocarbon consisting of an aromatic unit (typically a benzene ring) and a chain that forms a bridge between two non-adjacent positions of the aromatic ring. More complex derivatives with multiple aromati ...

name describes only a limited number of sub-structures of

benzene Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms ...

rings interconnected by individual atoms or chains, 'phane' is a class name which includes others, hence heterocyclic rings as well. Therefore, the various cyclophanes are perfectly good for the general class of phanes as well keeping in mind that the cyclic structures in phanes could have much greater diversity.

Operations

Amplification

Numbering

Interaction with skeletal replacement

Examples

Image:-6-cyclophanes.png, 1(1,3)-benzenacycloheptaphane Image:2,2-paracyclophane.png, 1,4(1,4)-dibenzenacyclohexaphane (right hand side)

References

Chemical nomenclature {{organic-chemistry-stub