Question

How do you name alkanes with halogens?

Answer 1

Hint: An alkane with halogen will be called a haloalkane. They are similar to alkanes but have one or more hydrogen atoms replaced by a halogen. Identify the parent carbon chain, and use halogen as prefix like chloro-, bromo- etc. while naming the compound.

Complete answer:
Halogens substituents are the functional groups. When you name an alkane with halogen you just use the prefix-halo in front of the name of the alkane. The prefix names for the halogens are fluoro-, chloro-, bromo-, and iodo-. The general prefix is halo-, and these compounds are known as haloalkanes.
Let us take an example to understand.
Suppose there is a compound with four carbon atoms, butane. It contains one chlorine atom attached to the first carbon of butane.
$C{H_3}C{H_3}C{H_3}C{H_2}Cl$
Here chlorine is the halogen atom and butane is the parent chain, so the chlorine will be a prefix as chloro- and then we write the name of the parent chain, in this case, it is butane. So its name would be Chlorobutane. The halogen atom is attached to the first carbon so it is \[1 - chlorobutane\].
Haloalkanes are commonly known as alkyl halides. They are classified as primary, secondary and tertiary alkyl halides. The classification is determined by the number of carbons bonded to the carbon bearing the halide.

Note:
The names of alkyl halides are based on the longest carbon chain. If more than one of the same kind of halogen is present then the prefix di, tri and tetra are used. If there are several different halogens, then number them and list them in alphabetical order. While naming the compounds remember to put commas to separate numbers from numbers. And also note that the multiplying prefixes (di-, tri, etc.) do not determine the alphabetical order.