Curious about a “lose weight quick” fad product sold at the corner store, I was reading the ingredients. It was a cocktail of herbal extracts and such including caffeine. But, the caffeine was listed by some chemical name with caffeine in parentheses. Huh, I thought caffeine WAS the chemical name! You know, like acetone IS acetone!
I’d have to go back and write down the lengthy name for caffeine, but in the meantime, can any SDopers explain the story here? Isn’t caffeine JUST caffeine?
Caffeine is the common name, while 1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6(3H,7H)-dione is the proper chemical name, just like “dog” is the common name of a popular pet, while the proper taxonomic name is Canis familiaris. They are just different names for the same thing.
The official chemical term for caffeine is 1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6(3H,7H)-dione. But that’s a mouthfull even for chemists. Other possible names are 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine, trimethylxanthine,
theine, and methyltheobromine. But even in a chemistry lab, anybody that calls it something other than caffeine is showing off. That is until you start derivitizing it.
This information is brought to you by Wikipedia. I could never figure out chemical nomenclature.
Yet, acetone is…?
2-propanone.
Ha! I knew that one.
ETA: Damn! QED is right, the 2 is superflous
Propanone.
propanone, dimethyl ketone, 2-propanone, propan-2-one, β-ketopropane, CH[sub]3[/sub]COCH[sub]3[/sub]
Tasty!
A good dissolver of those cheap Bic mechanical pencils!
Acetone does that? I know for sure dichloromethane does. Don’t ever try to clean your CD’s with dichloromethane either. Don’t ask me how I know that.
It might completely dissolve it after an extended period, but I know that it certainly flattened and matted the finish when I accidentally set my pencil down in a puddle of it in Organic lab.
Acetone completely wrecks a lot of compounds - two from my own experience:
– cheapo lab goggles. Acetone crazes the typically polycarbonate goggles with a quickness.
–Compact discs – again, I believe they have a polycarbonate layer above the data layer. Acetone destroys this, rendering the CD unusable.
Nitpick: FWIW, the consensus is more and more in favor of the more accurate Canis lupus familiaris.
(ETA: Actually, since the last time I was paying attention, the nomenclature change has become official, not just consensus.)
Acetone will dissolve a styrofoam cup quite rapidly.
Dogs will destroy a styrofoam cup even quicker.
I have plenty of experience with acetone, but I don’t ever remember it dissolving something accidently. Dichloromethane on the other hand tore anything up that it touched. I didn’t do around throwing acetone on everything though. That’s what my wife did.
Acetone is the primary ingredient in nail polish remover and is good at dissolving finishes on a whole range of things.
I think nail polish remover is usually ethyl acetate and that’s a pretty “meh” solvent as far as I know. Anyway, it sure smells like Ethyl Acetate. I used it for columns in the early part of my career, but later it was utterly useless for what I did.
What if the styrofoam cup is prepared?
With barbecue sauce? The dog will be extruding small white pellets for a good while.