Tertiary carbon
Open-knowledge reference entry
A tertiary carbon atom is a carbon atom bound to three other carbon atoms. For this reason, tertiary carbon atoms are found only in hydrocarbons containing at least four carbon atoms. They are called saturated hydrocarbons because they only contain carbon-carbon single bonds. Tertiary carbons have a hybridization of sp3. Tertiary carbon atoms can occur, for example, in branched alkanes, but not in linear alkanes.
Nomenclature
The R is the functional group attached to a tertiary carbon. If the functional group was an OH group, this compound would be commonly called tert-butanol or t-butanol. When a functional group is attached to a tertiary carbon, the prefix -tert (-t) is used in the common name for the compound. An example of this is shown in the figure.
Significance
Carbocation Stability
Tertiary carbons form the most stable carbocations due to a combination of factors.
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