Title: nitriles
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - nitriles
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.N04151
Status: current

Definition
Compounds having the structure $\ce{RC#N}$; thus C-substituted derivatives of hydrocyanic acid, $\ce{HC#N}$. In systematic nomenclature, the suffix nitrile denotes the triply bound $\ce{#N}$ atom, not the carbon atom attached to it.

Related Terms
- carbonitriles: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C00838
- cyanides: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C01486
- isocyanides: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/I03270

Source
- PAC, 1995, 67, 1307. 'Glossary of class names of organic compounds and reactivity intermediates based on structure (IUPAC Recommendations 1995)' on page 1350 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199567081307)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/N04151/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/N04151/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/N04151/xml

Citation: Citation: 'nitriles' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.N04151
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Accessed: 2026-05-06T15:06:13+00:00