International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC, on lowercase letters: iupac, /ˈaɪjuːpæk/ or /ˈjuːpæ>k/) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations that represents chemists in individual countries. It is a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU). The international headquarters of IUPAC is in Zürich, Switzerland. The administrative office, known as the "IUPAC Secretariat", is in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States. This administrative office is headed by the IUPAC executive director. As of 1 August 2012, the Executive Director is Dr. John D. Petersen.

IUPAC was established in 1919 as the successor of the International Congress of Applied Chemistry for the advancement of chemistry. Its members, the National Adhering Organizations, can be national chemistry societies, national academies of sciences, or other bodies representing chemists. There are fifty-four National Adhering Organizations and three Associate National Adhering Organizations. IUPAC's Inter-divisional Committee on Nomenclature and Symbols (IUPAC nomenclature) is the recognized world authority in developing standards for the naming of the chemical elements and compounds. Since its creation, IUPAC has been run by many different committees with different responsibilities. These committees run different projects which include standardizing nomenclature, finding ways to bring chemistry to the world, and publishing works.

IUPAC is best known for its works standardizing nomenclature in chemistry and other fields of science, but IUPAC has publications in many fields including chemistry, biology and physics. Some important work IUPAC has done in these fields includes standardizing nucleotide base sequence code names; publishing books for environmental scientists, chemists, and physicists; and leading the way in improving education in science. IUPAC is also known for standardizing the atomic weights of the elements through one of its oldest standing committees, the Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights.

Creation and history

The need for an international standard for chemistry was first addressed in 1860 by a committee headed by German scientist Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz. This committee was the first international conference to create an international naming system for organic compounds. The ideas that were formulated in that conference evolved into the official IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry. The IUPAC stands as a legacy of this meeting, making it one of the most important historical international collaborations of chemistry societies. Since this time, IUPAC has been the official organization held with the responsibility of updating and maintaining official organic nomenclature. IUPAC as such was established in 1919. One notable country excluded from this early IUPAC was Germany. Germany's exclusion was a result of prejudice towards Germans by the allied powers after World War I. Germany was finally admitted into IUPAC during 1929. However, Nazi Germany was removed from IUPAC during World War II.

During World War II, IUPAC was affiliated with the Allied powers, but had little involvement during the war effort itself. After the war, West Germany was allowed back into IUPAC. Since World War II, IUPAC has been focused on standardizing nomenclature and methods in science without interruption.

Committees and governance

IUPAC is governed by several committees that all have different responsibilities. The committees are as follows: Bureau, CHEMRAWN (Chem Research Applied to World Needs) Committee, Committee on Chemistry Education, Committee on Chemistry and Industry, Committee on Printed and Electronic Publications, Evaluation Committee, Executive Committee, Finance Committee, Interdivisional Committee on Terminology, Nomenclature and Symbols, Project Committee, Pure and Applied Chemistry Editorial Advisory Board. Each committee is made from members of different National Adhering Organizations from different countries.

The steering committee hierarchy for IUPAC is as follows:

1. All committees have an allotted budget that they must adhere to
2. Any committee may start a project.
3. If a project's spending becomes too much for a committee to continue funding, it must take the issue to the Project Committee.
4. The project committee either increases the budget or decides on an external funding plan.
5. The Bureau and Executive Committee oversee operations of the other committees

Nomenclature

The IUPAC committee has a long history of officially naming organic and inorganic compounds as mentioned in the Creation and History section. IUPAC nomenclature is developed so that any compound can be named under one set of standard rules to avoid repeat names. The first publication, which is information from the International Congress of Applied Chemistry, is on IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds can be found from the early 20th century in A Guide to IUPAC Nomenclature of Organic Compounds (1900).

Organic nomenclature

IUPAC organic nomenclature has three basic parts: the substituents, carbon chain length and chemical ending. The substituents are any functional groups attached to the main carbon chain. The main carbon chain is the longest possible continuous chain. The chemical ending denotes what type of molecule it is. For example, the ending "ane" denotes a single bonded carbon chain, as in "hexane" (C
6H
14).

Another example of IUPAC organic nomenclature is cyclohexanol:

• The substituent name for a ring compound is "cyclo".
• The indication (substituent name) for a six carbon chain is "hex".
• The chemical ending for a single bonded carbon chain is "ane"
• The chemical ending for an alcohol is "ol"
• The two chemical endings are combined for an ending of "anol" indicating a single bonded carbon chain with an alcohol attached to it.

Inorganic nomenclature

Basic IUPAC inorganic nomenclature has two main parts: the cation and the anion. The cation is the name for the positively charged ion and the anion is the name for the negatively charged ion.

An example of IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry is potassium chlorate (KClO₃):

• Potassium is the cation name.
• Chlorate is the anion name.

Amino acid and nucleotide base codes

IUPAC also has a system for giving codes to identify amino acids and nucleotide bases. IUPAC needed a coding system that represented long sequences of amino acids. This would allow for these sequences to be compared to try to find homologies. These codes can consist of either a one letter code or a three letter code.

These codes make it easier and shorter to write down the amino acid sequences that make up proteins. The nucleotide bases are made up of purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (cytosine and thymine or uracil). These nucleotide bases make up DNA and RNA. These nucleotide base codes make the genome of an organism much smaller and easier to read.

The codes for amino acids (24 amino acids and 3 special codes) are:

Publications

Non-series books

Experimental Thermodynamics book series

The Experimental Thermodynamics books series covers many topics in the fields of thermodynamics.

Series of books on analytical and physical chemistry of environmental systems

Colored cover book and website series (nomenclature)

IUPAC color codes their books in order to make each publication distinguishable.

International Year of Chemistry

IUPAC and UNESCO are the lead organizations coordinating events for the International Year of Chemistry, which took place in 2011. The International Year of Chemistry was originally proposed by IUPAC at the General Assembly in Turin, Italy. This motion was adopted by UNESCO at a meeting in 2008. The main objectives of the International Year of Chemistry is to increase public appreciation of chemistry and gain more interest in the world of chemistry. This event is also being held to encourage young people to get involved and contribute to chemistry. A further reason for this event being held is to honour how chemistry has made improvements to everyone's way of life.

Current projects

IUPAC current project list

• Project Number 2009-012-2-200: Coordination polymers and metal organic frameworks: terminology and nomenclature guidelines
  • The objectives of this project are (1) to produce guidelines for terminology (glossary of terms) and nomenclature (concerning topology, not naming of individual substances) in the area of coordination polymers, (2) to ensure that these guidelines are accepted by a large group of leading researchers in the field, and (3) to have these guidelines implemented or referred to in the instructions to authors of leading general and inorganic chemistry journals.
• Project Number 2009-032-1-100: Categorizing Halogen Bonding and Other Noncovalent Interactions Involving Halogen Atoms
  • The objective of this project is to give a modern definition to the term halogen bonding and to examine and classify halogens as electrophilic species and their intermolecular interactions.
• Project Number 2009-048-1-600: Guidance for substance-related environmental monitoring strategies regarding soil and surface water
  • The objective of this project is to identify new pollutants and their hazards and to monitor less investigated pollutants. Also, this project will provide strategies for how pollutants should be monitored. The advantages and disadvantages of each monitoring technique will be discussed.
• Project Number 2009-034-2-700: Risk Assessment of Effects of Cadmium on Human Health
  • The objective of this project is to identify the risks and effects of exposure of humans to Cadmium, which is classified as a carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Also, the objective includes researching how Cadmium enters into the human body.
• Project Number 2009-019-2-400: Data Treatment in SEC and Other Techniques of Polymer Characterization. Correction for Band Broadening and Other Sources of Error.
  • The objective of this project is to provide practical alternatives for improving the accuracy of polymer characterization and measurements. This would allow manufacturers of equipment, such as size exclusive chromatography (SEC) and other polymer characterization techniques, to sell a product that is more accurate and precise.

See also

• CAS registry number
• Chemical nomenclature
• Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights
• European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences
• Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM)
• International Chemical Identifier (InChI)
• International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB)
• List of chemical elements naming controversies
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Simplified molecular-input line-entry system (SMILES)

References

External links

• Official website
• Panel on Biochemical Thermodynamics (1994). "Recommendations for nomenclature and tables in biochemical thermodynamics". G. P. Moss, Queen Mary University of London.