Tertiary (chemistry)

The adjective tertiary (tert Abbreviate. Tertiarius from Latin ) means " third place " and is used in chemistry as a word -forming element, such as tertiary product and tertiary structure. The short form tert- is used as a descriptor in a semi- systematic names of substances, such as tert- butanol.

Organic chemistry

Comparison of tertiary with primary, secondary and quaternary central atoms.

In organic chemistry, the term " tertiary " is a designation for the substitution of three of several to a central atom ( carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus) bonded hydrogen atoms with organic groups ( organyl radical, such as alkyl radical, alkenyl radical, aryl radical alkylaryl radical, etc.), for example tertiary alcohols containing a tertiary carbon atom ( central atom = carbon), tertiary amines, a tertiary nitrogen atom ( central atom is nitrogen ), tertiary phosphine, a tertiary phosphorus atom ( central atom = phosphorus).

Examples of tertiary central atoms

• A carbon atom in an alkane or an alcohol, which carries one or no hydrogen atom in addition to three substituents, or
• A nitrogen atom in an amine bound to the three organic radicals.

This usually leads with tertiary compounds to a significant steric hindrance of the functional group and to the fact that typical reactions occur, compared with secondary compounds of the same class of heavy or not at all.

Examples of such compounds are tertiary alcohols (for example, 2-methyl -2-propanol ), tertiary amines (eg triethylamine) or tertiary phosphines (eg triphenylphosphine ). A typical example of a tertiary carbon atom is the central carbon atom in the 2 -methyl propane.

Inorganic Chemistry

In Inorganic Chemistry a description of salts are formed by neutralization of the three hydroxy groups of a polybasic acid, such as calcium phosphate, Ca3 (PO4) 2