Molecules with silly or unusual names

Just what it says, with lots of pictures, quite entertaining:
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols.htm

A couple of good examples:

Uranate

"The various uranium oxide anions (UO22-, UO32-, UO42-, etc) go by the glorious name of 'uranates'. I wonder if unwanted reactions of these ions with certain compounds is called 'involuntary uranation'...? "


Diabolic Acid

"Diabolic acids are actually a class of compounds where the m and n chains can have different lengths and can contain unsaturation. They were named after the Greek diabollo, meaning to mislead, since they were particularly difficult to isolate using standard gas chromatography techniques. One of the inventors, Prof Klein, also thought that they had 'horns like the devil'."

Dinile

"Why did the two cyanide groups go to see a psychiatrist? Because they were both 'in dinile'... In fact, dinile is another name for butanedinitrile or succinonitrile, and is a waxy solid that if ingested forms cyanides in the body."






Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 03/03/07.