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Annual meeting
2000, brief summary
The Commission met in Dublin, Ireland, on August 19-21,
2000. As a first order of business the minutes of the 1999 meeting
in Berlin were approved.
Copies of two recent publications were distributed: Nomenclature
of Organometallic Compounds of the Transition Elements, A. Salzer,
Pure Appl.
Chem.
71 (1999) 1557-1585. Names for Inorganic Radicals, W. H. Koppenol,
Pure
Appl. Chem.
72 # 3 (2000) 437-446. Two documents by Prof. Koppenol, Names
for Muonium Ions and Radicals and The Naming of New Elements,
were discussed. The muonium document had been sent to IDCNS and IUPAP
and will be submitted to Commission V.7 for comments. The document
dealing with the naming of elements will be sent to the Division of
Inorganic Chemistry for consultation including external reviews.
A contract for publication of Red
Book II has been signed with the RSC. Page proofs are expected
in November, 2000. Publication is now targeted for 2001.
The principal business of this meeting was to set a firm
timetable for Red
Book I revision with Prof. N. Connelly as editor. Specific assignments
were allocated to Commission members with a deadline set to reply
to the editor by January 1, 2001. A number of decisions were made
regarding rules to be stated in the revised Red Book I. These decisions
will be apparent in the full minutes from the Dublin meeting. Prof.
Connelly is expecting to have a draft document for the next meeting
in Brisbane, June 30-July 3, 2001.
The Commission heard a report from Prof. A. Dress on the
activities of a group addressing the encoding of molecular structures
and the prospects for a unique
chemical identifier (IUChI). This identifier will most likely
be a string of symbols generated by the computer from a connection
table. A project entitled Computer-Aided Nomenclature for Clusters
and Polyhedra was formulated by Prof. Dress during the meeting. This
comes under the IUPAC strategic thrust for development of effective
channels of computer-aided communication in the international chemical
community. Initially the project will aim at using descriptors for
clusters and polyhedra in the form of alphanumeric strings. It is
the intention that these methods eventually merge with Heller's approach.
If funded, this project will commence January 1, 2001 and continue
for three years.
The Commission also heard proposals for two other projects:
Organometallics and Preferred Names (P-Names). The ongoing work in
organometallic chemistry will continue with the emphasis on metallacycles.
The metallacycle working document will be further revised and disseminated
to the working party. A new titular member of the Commission, Dr.
Alan Hutton, has agreed to assume leadership of a project to produce
a separate book on organometallic nomenclature.
A new thrust to devise a list of preferred names for inorganic
compounds was initiated. The feasibility of establishing these P-Names
will be explored initially in the list of the names of ions and groups
that is contained in the 25-page Table VIII in Red Book I. CNIC is
ready to work with CNOC and any other commissions in the area of overlapping
entries. In cases where no common agreement can be reached, we plan
mutual cross-references.
The Commission heard a presentation from Dr. J. Wisniewski,
Senior Developer at MDL and member of CNOC. Dr. Wisniewski demonstrated
the operation of Autonom by drawing a structure of an organic compound
and displaying its computer-generated name. At present the program
is based on the 1979 IUPAC rules for naming organic compounds. The
demonstration was impressive, but serious limitations were apparent
in the version demonstrated. Multiplicative names cannot be generated,
symmetrical compounds also fail and the program is limited to 125
atoms. Dr. Wisniewski also reported that MDL recently acquired a license
to use the Gmelin Database of Inorganic Compounds.
The Commission was informed that
the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party on Claims
to the Discovery of Elements 110, 111 and 112 was able to attribute
the discovery of element 110 to the GSI at Darmstadt. The chair of
CNIC will accordingly invite the Laboratory at Darmstadt to provide
suggested names. Conclusive discovery of elements 111 and 112 had
not yet been established by the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party.
The future of nomenclature activities in inorganic chemistry
was discussed. In order to provide continuity of such efforts under
the IUPAC reorganization, the Commission members present unanimously
supported the idea to keep the Commission together as a group. There
was strong sentiment to remain under its former title or receive some
equivalent affiliation with the Division of Inorganic Chemistry.
The members were thanked for their efforts and the meeting
was adjourned. The next meeting will be held in Brisbane, Australia,
June 30-July 3, 2001.
James B.
Casey (CNIC member, IDCNS representative)
Ture Damhus (CNIC
secretary)
Ultimo October 2000
> Download full text of the
minutes of the meeting (pdf file - 51kb)
> Summary published in Chem.
Int.
23(2), 2001
