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In organic chemistry, an alkane, or paraffin (a historical trivial name that also has other meanings), is an acyclic saturated hydrocarbon. In other words, an alkane consists of hydrogen and carbon atoms arranged in a tree structure in which all the carbon–carbon bonds are single. [1] Alkanes have the general chemical formula C n H 2n+2.
Alkynes are capable of adding two equivalents of H 2, whereas an alkene adds only one equivalent. [11] Depending on catalysts and conditions, alkynes add one or two equivalents of hydrogen. Partial hydrogenation , stopping after the addition of only one equivalent to give the alkene , is usually more desirable since alkanes are less useful:
Alkenes are generally colorless non-polar compounds, somewhat similar to alkanes but more reactive. The first few members of the series are gases or liquids at room temperature. The simplest alkene, ethylene (C 2 H 4) (or "ethene" in the IUPAC nomenclature) is the organic compound produced on the largest scale industrially. [5]
The following is a list of straight-chain alkanes, the total number of isomers of each (including branched chains), and their common names, sorted by number of carbon atoms. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Number of C atoms
alkene (unsaturated) vs alkane (saturated) alkyne (unsaturated) vs alkane (saturated) arene (unsaturated) vs cycloalkane (saturated) For organic compounds containing heteroatoms (other than C and H), the list of unsaturated groups is long but some common types are:
Alkane (single bond) Alkene (double bond) Alkyne (triple bond) ... The cracking of saturated hydrocarbons is the main industrial route to alkenes and alkyne.
For example, the simplest alkane is CH 4 methane, and the nine-carbon alkane CH 3 (CH 2) 7 CH 3 is named nonane. The names of the first four alkanes were derived from methanol, ether, propionic acid and butyric acid, respectively.
Cycloalkanes are isomers of alkenes, not of alkanes, because the ring's closure involves a C-C bond. Having no rings (aromatic or otherwise), all open-chain compounds are aliphatic. Typically in biochemistry, some isomers are more prevalent than others.