How is bisphenol pronounced? I have heard NBC newscasters pronouncing it as bis-phenol, but that is wrong?

Question

Shouldn't it be pronounced BY sphenol? Am I wrong?

Answer 1

you are wrong.  the announcer has the correct pronunciation.  "phenols" are a class of chemical compounds.  there are no "sphenols".  bis- is the prefix.  bi- is not used as a prefix in chem.  

Answer 2

No, it's BIS-phenol.

It consists of 2 equivalents of phenol (not sphenol).  Because it is prepared by condensing acetone with 2 phenols, the one in the news is bisphenol-A (A for acetone).

Bisphenol is a coordination compound, with two ligands (bonded molecules).  That is, the two phenols are bound to a central metal atom.  The number of ligand molecules per complex is indicated by a Greek prefix: mono-, di- (or bis), tri-, tetra-, penta-, hexa, hepta-, octa-, nona-, (ennea-), deca- etc for 1, 2, 3, ... 10 etc. If the names of ligands already have one of these prefixes, the names are placed in parentheses. The prefices for the number of ligands become bis-, tris-, tetrakis, pentakis- etc.

Bisphenol-A's "real" name is 4,4'-dihydroxy-2,2-diphenylpropane

or 4,4'-(propan-2-ylidene)diphenol,