The Chinese Chemical Society (CCS; Chinese: 中国化学会) lays out a set of rules based on those given by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) for the purpose of systematic organic nomenclature in Chinese. A standard set of characters, invented during the 20th century, is used for this purpose.
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The majority of the Chinese characters used for this purpose are phonosemantic compounds, with part of the character giving a general semantic category and the other part providing a pronunciation, usually based on the international (European) pronunciation. There are four common radicals (the part of the character that gives the semantic category) for these characters:
Additionally, the mouth radical (口, kǒu) is affixed to characters that are used for their sound only. This occurs often in the transliteration of the names of heterocyclic compounds, (e.g., 吡啶, "bǐdìng", pyridine). These characters are also used for the transliteration of non-chemical terms from foreign languages.
Below is a table, in pinyin order, of the Chinese names of major organic compounds, radicals, and functional groups. Characters given are in Simplified Chinese. Since the characters are modern creations, the Traditional Chinese characters are analogous (with Traditional components in place of Simplified components). This list is not exhaustive, although many of the other characters used for this purpose can only be found in specialist dictionaries.
| Character | Phonetic | Pronunciation | Origin/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 胺 amine | 安 ān 'peace' | àn | From ammonia, 氨, ān, itself based on the European pronunciation (铵, ǎn 'ammonia', with the metal radical is used for ammonium salts) |
| 薁 azulene | 奥 ào 'mysterious' | ào | European pronunciation (There is an unrelated archaic homographic character pronounced yù, meaning 'wild grapes') |
| 苯 benzene or phenyl | 本 běn 'this','root' | běn | European pronunciation |
| 吡啶 pyridine | 比 bǐ 'contrast' and 定 dìng 'stability' | bǐdìng | Transliteration |
| 吡咯 pyrrole | 比 bǐ 'contrast' and 各 gè 'each' | bǐluò | Transliteration |
| 苄 benzyl | 卞 biàn 'hurried' | biàn | European pronunciation |
| 卟吩 porphin | 卜 bǔ foretell' and 分 fēn 'divide' | bǔfēn | Transliteration (Formerly known as 㗊, jí, which depicts the porphin ring system pictographically) |
| 醇 alcohol | 享 xiǎng 'enjoy' | chún | Not newly coined, original meaning 'rich wine' |
| 苊 acenaphthene | 厄 è 'hardship' | è | European pronunciation |
| 蒽 anthracene | 恩 ēn 'favor' | ēn | European pronunciation |
| 酚 (also 苯酚) phenol | 分 fēn 'divide' | fēn (běnfēn) | European pronunciation |
| 砜 sulfone | 风 fēng 'the wind' | fēng | European pronunciation (亚砜, yàfēng [lit. minor sulfone], is used for sulfoxide) |
| 呋喃 furan | 夫 fū 'husband' and 南 nán 'south' | fúnán | Transliteration |
| 酐 (organic or inorganic) anhydride | 干 gān 'dry', 'work' | gān | From (simplified) 干, gān, 'dry' |
| 苷 glycoside | 甘 gān 'sweet' | gān | From 甘, gān, 'sweet' (Formerly known as 甙, dài, from 代, dài, 'substitute') |
| 胍 guanidine | 瓜 guā 'melon' | guā | European pronunciation |
| 胲 hydroxylamine | 亥 hài '9-11 pm' | hǎi | European pronunciation |
| 磺 sulfonyl | 黄 huáng 'yellow' | huáng | From 硫磺, liúhuáng, 'sulfur' (e.g., 磺胺, huángàn is sulfonamide) |
| 腈 nitrile | 青 qīng 'blue','green' | jīng | From cyanogen, 氰, qíng, itself derived from 青, qīng, blue/green, cf. Prussian blue |
| 肼 hydrazine | 井 jǐng. 'a well' | jǐng | European pronunciation |
| 胩 isonitrile | 卡 kǎ 'stop','check' | kǎ | From older nomenclature carbylamine (Also known as 异腈, yìjīng [lit. different nitrile]) |
| 蒈 carane | 皆 jiē 'all' | kǎi | European pronunciation |
| 莰 camphane | 坎 kǎn 'threshold' | kǎn | European pronunciation |
| 喹啉 quinoline | 奎 kuí 'stride' and 林 lín 'forest' | kuílín | Transliteration |
| 醌 quinone | 昆 kūn 'elder brother' | kūn | European pronunciation |
| 膦 phosphine | 粦 lín | lìn | From 磷, lín, itself from 粦 lín, 'will-o'-the-wisp' (Phosphonium is 鏻, lǐn, in analogy to ammonium) |
| 醚 ether | 迷 mí 'bewilder' | mí | From 迷, mí, 'confusion', from anesthetic properties of diethyl ether |
| 脒 amidine | 米 mǐ 'rice' | mǐ | European pronunciation |
| 咪唑 imidazole | 米 mǐ 'rice' and 坐 zuò 'sit' | mǐzuò | Transliteration |
| 嘧啶 pyrimidine | 密 mì 'dense' and 定 dìng 'stability' | mìdìng | Transliteration |
| 萘 naphthalene | 奈 nài 'Chennai' | nài | European pronunciation |
| 脲 urea | 尿 niào 'urine' | niào | From 尿, niào, 'urine' |
| 苧 limonene | 宁 níng 'peaceful' | níng | From 柠檬 níngméng, 'lemon' |
| 哌啶 piperidine | 𠂢 pài and 定 dìng 'stability' | pàidìng | Transliteration |
| 哌嗪 piperazine | 𠂢 pài and 秦 qín 'Qin Dynasty' | pàiqín | Transliteration |
| 蒎 pinene | 派 pài 'assign' | pài | European pronunciation |
| 苉 picene | 匹 pǐ 'equal' | pǐ | European pronunciation |
| 嘌呤 purine | 票 piào 'ticket' and 令 lìng 'make' | piàolìng | Transliteration |
| 羟 hydroxyl | 羊 yáng 'sheep' and 巠 jīng | qiǎng | From fusion of the sounds of 氧, yǎng, 'oxygen' and 氢, qīng, 'hydrogen' |
| 巯 sulfhydryl | 巠 jīng and 硫 liú 'sulfur' | qiú | From fusion of the sounds of 氢, qīng, 'hydrogen' and 硫, liú, 'sulfur' (Sulfonium is 锍, liǔ, in analogy with ammonium) |
| 醛 aldehyde | 荃 quán | quán | From 荃, quán, a type of fragrant grass, referring to the fragrance of many aldehydes |
| 炔 alkyne | 夬 guǎi | quē | From 缺, quē, 'deficient', referring to its unsaturation, cf. names for alkanes and alkenes |
| 脎 osazone | 杀 shā 'kill' | sà | European pronunciation |
| 胂 arsine | 申 shēn 'explain' | shèn | From 砷, shēn, 'arsenic' (Arsonium is 鉮, shěn, in analogy with ammonium) |
| 酸 (organic or inorganic) acid | 夋, qūn | suān | Not newly coined, also means 'sour' |
| 羧 carboxyl | n.a. | suō | Character construction is based on combination of 氧, yǎng, and 酸, suān, pronunciation from European pronunciation |
| 肽 peptide | 太 tài 'excessively' | tài | European pronunciation |
| 酞 phthalein | 太 tài 'excessively' | tài | European pronunciation |
| 羰 carbonyl | 羊 yáng 'sheep' and 炭 tàn 'charcoal' | tǎng | From fusion of the sounds of 氧, yǎng, 'oxygen' and 碳, tàn, 'carbon' |
| 萜 terpene | 帖 tiè 'obedient' | tiē | European pronunciation |
| 烃 hydrocarbon | 巠 jīng | tīng | From fusion of the sounds of 碳, tàn, 'carbon' and 氢, qīng, 'hydrogen |
| 酮 ketone | 同 tóng 'same' | tóng | European pronunciation |
| 烷 alkane | 完 wán 'complete' | wán | From 完, wán, 'complete', referring to its saturation, cf. names for alkenes and alkynes |
| 肟 oxime | 亏 yú 'deficit' | wò | European pronunciation (Note that 亏 is also the unrelated simplified character for 虧 'deficit', kuī. In this context, it is the archaic variant character for 于 'with regard to', yú) |
| 芴 fluorene | 勿 wù 'do not' | wù | European pronunciation |
| 烯 alkene | 希 xī 'infrequent' | xī | From 希, xī, 'sparse', referring to its unsaturation, cf. names for alkanes and alkynes |
| 酰 (organic or inorganic) acyl | 先 xiān 'in front' | xiān | From 先, xiān, 'earlier [i.e. precursor]', referring to its derivation from acids (Formerly known as 醯, xī) |
| 吲哚 indole | 引 yǐn 'attract' and 朵 duǒ | yǐnduǒ | Transliteration |
| 茚 indene | 印 yìn 'impression' | yìn | European pronunciation |
| 甾 steroid | 甾 zāi 'steroid' | zāi | Pictographic in origin, refers to the three side-chains (found in cholesterol) and four rings found in all steroids (Also an unrelated archaic character with pronunciation zī) |
| 酯 ester | 旨 zhǐ 'purpose' | zhǐ | From 脂, zhī, 'lipid', referring to the ester linkages in glycerides |
| 䓬 tropylium | 卓 zhuó 'eminent' | zhuó | European pronunciation |
| 腙 hydrazone | 宗 zōng 'faction' | zōng | European pronunciation |
In the CCS system, carbon chain lengths are denoted by celestial stems (甲，乙，丙，丁，戊，己，庚，辛，壬，癸), characters used since the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th cent. BCE) for naming days (and later, to name years). For example, hexane is 己烷, jǐwán, since 己 jǐ is the sixth celestial stem. Longer carbon chains are specified by number followed by '碳' (tàn, 'carbon'). For example 1-hexadecene is 1-十六碳烯 (read as [1, yī] [-, wèi] [十六, shíliù, '16'] [碳, tàn] [烯, xī]), where the dash is read as 位 (wèi, 'position').
For a more complex example, consider but-3-en-1-ol (homoallyl alcohol). Its Chinese name is 3-丁烯-1-醇 (read as [3, sān] [-, wèi] [丁, dīng] [烯, xī] [1, yī] [-, wèi] [醇, chún])
The Chinese Wikipedia page may be consulted for further details.