Hydrocarbon Chemistry
Chapter One
GENERAL ASPECTS
1.1. HYDROCARBONS AND THEIR CLASSES
Hydrocarbons, as their name indicates, are compounds of carbon and hydrogen.
As such, they represent one of the most significant classes of organic compounds
(i.e., of carbon compounds). In methane (C[H.sub.4]) the simplest saturated alkane, a
single-carbon atom, is bonded to four hydrogen atoms. In the higher homologs
of methane (of the general formula [C.sub.n][H.sub.2n+2]) all atoms are bound to each other
by single [(sigma ([sigma]), two-electron two-center] bonds with carbon displaying its
tendency to form C-C bonds. Whereas in C[H.sub.4] the H : C ratio is 4, in [C.sub.2][H.sub.6] (ethane)
it is decreased to 3; in [C.sub.3][H.sub.8] (propane), to 2.67; and so on. Alkanes can be straight-chain
(with each carbon attached to not more than two other carbon atoms) or
branched (in which at least one of the carbons is attached to either three or four
other carbon atoms). Carbon atoms can be aligned in open chains (acyclic hydro-carbons)
or can form rings (cyclic hydrocarbons).
Cycloalkanes are cyclic saturated hydrocarbons containing a single ring.
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