How to name this organic compound?

How would you name this compound if **ethoxy ethane** is disubstituted with hydroxy group on both alpha carbons? The formula of the compound is:


$\ce{H3C-CH(OH)-O-CH(OH)-CH3}$


Is this compound stable at room temperature or not?




For the application of the nomenclature rules, it generally doesn't matter if the compound exists as long as it has consistent and well-understood bonding patterns and can be interpreted with a simple application of valence rules.


Using the usual straightforward nomenclature rules, you should see that the parent structure of the compound that is given in the question is **ethanol.** Using substitutive nomenclature, the complete name of the compound is **1-(1-hydroxyethoxy)ethan-1-ol.**


In this case, however, a different rule is relevant. Since there are two identical parent structures (the two ethanol units), which are not alkanes, multiplicative nomenclature is preferred to substitutive nomenclature.



> 
> **P-51.3.1** Preferred IUPAC multiplicative names  
> 
> For a multiplicative name to be categorized as an IUPAC preferred name, certain restrictive conditions must be met. Multiplicative nomenclature is preferred to substitutive nomenclature for generating preferred IUPAC names to express multiple occurrences of identical parent structures, other than alkanes when
> 
> 
> (1) the linking bonds (single or multiple) between the central substituent group of the multiplicative group and all subsequent structural units are identical and
> 
> 
> (2) the multiplicative groups, other than the central multiplicative group, are symmetrically substituted; and
> 
> 
> (3) the locants of all substituent groups on the identical parent structures, including suffix groups, are identical.
> 
> 
> 


Therefore, the identical parent structures are expressed by the multiplicative name **1,1'-…di(ethan-1-ol).**


The prefix oxy is now used for the multiplicative substituent group $\ce{{}-O-{}}$. So the complete multiplicative name is **1,1'-oxydi(ethan-1-ol).**


![1,1'-oxydi(ethan-1-ol)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9mpUc.png)
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