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Chemical structure of methane, the simplest alkane. 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]
Methane (US: / ˈ m ɛ θ eɪ n / METH-ayn, UK: / ˈ m iː θ eɪ n / MEE-thayn) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CH 4 (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas.
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
Ball-and-stick model of the methane molecule, CH 4.Methane is part of a homologous series known as the alkanes, which contain single bonds only.. In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon.
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.
Carbon forms a huge variety of hydrocarbons (among the simplest alkanes are methane CH 4, ethane C 2 H 6, propane C 3 H 8, butane C 4 H 10, pentane C 5 H 12 and hexane C 6 H 14, with a wide range of uses. There is also polyethylene (CH 2) n, where n is very large, a stable hydrocarbon polymer, the most commonly produced plastic. [2]
It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane reformer A methane reformer is a device used in chemical engineering , which can produce pure hydrogen gas from natural gas using a catalyst .
Neopentane is the simplest alkane with a quaternary carbon, and has achiral tetrahedral symmetry. It is one of the three structural isomers with the molecular formula C 5 H 12 , the other two being n-pentane and isopentane. Out of these three, it is the only one to be a gas at standard conditions; the others are liquids.