Why is it called the Cahn-Ingold-Prelog system?

1 Answer
Apr 17, 2015

Great question. First of all, I'm very proud of Vladimir Prelog, croatian chemist.

Here is the anwer:
The Cahn–Ingold–Prelog priority rules named after Robert Sidney Cahn, Christopher Kelk Ingold and Vladimir Prelog are a set of rules used in organic chemistry to name the stereoisomers of a molecule. A molecule may contain any number of stereocenters and any number of double bonds, and each gives rise to two possible configurations. The purpose of the CIP system is to assign an R or S descriptor to each stereocenter and an E or Z descriptor to each double bond so that the configuration of the entire molecule can be specified uniquely by including the descriptors in its systematic name.