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In the fossil fuel industries, hydrocarbon refers to naturally occurring petroleum, natural gas and coal, or their hydrocarbon derivatives and purified forms. Combustion of hydrocarbons is the main source of the world's energy. Petroleum is the dominant raw-material source for organic commodity chemicals such as solvents and polymers.
Not all atoms attract electrons with the same force. The amount of "pull" an atom exerts on its electrons is called its electronegativity.Atoms with high electronegativities – such as fluorine, oxygen, and nitrogen – exert a greater pull on electrons than atoms with lower electronegativities such as alkali metals and alkaline earth metals.
Because of this small difference in electronegativities, the C−H bond is generally regarded as being non-polar. In structural formulas of molecules, the hydrogen atoms are often omitted. Compound classes consisting solely of C−H bonds and C−C bonds are alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, and aromatic hydrocarbons. Collectively they are known as ...
A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings, and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. PAHs are uncharged, non-polar and planar. Many are colorless.
Regarding the organization of covalent bonds, recall that classic molecular solids, as stated above, consist of small, non-polar covalent molecules. The example given, paraffin wax , is a member of a family of hydrocarbon molecules of differing chain lengths, with high-density polyethylene at the long-chain end of the series.
Their solubility in nonpolar solvents is relatively high, a property that is called lipophilicity. Alkanes are, for example, miscible in all proportions among themselves. The density of the alkanes usually increases with the number of carbon atoms but remains less than that of water. Hence, alkanes form the upper layer in an alkane–water mixture.
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated lipids that are liquid at room temperature.
Some argue that the hydrophobic interaction is mostly an entropic effect originating from the disruption of highly dynamic hydrogen bonds between molecules of liquid water by the nonpolar solute. [16] A hydrocarbon chain or a similar nonpolar region of a large molecule is incapable of forming hydrogen bonds with water.