Skip to main content

Alkanes

Alkanes:

I have discussed definition of Organic compounds in my earlier blogs but still we will go through the definition once again. So, The organic compounds are the compounds containing carbon and hydrogen atoms. These organic compounds may also contain oxygen, sulphur, nitrogen, phosphorous, and halogens.

Alkanes are the organic compounds formed of carbon and hydrogen, bonded only by single bonds. Carbon chain in alkanes contains only single bond and this is a unique characteristic which differentiates alkanes from other types of organic compounds. Let's see who are the members of alkane family in the figure as follows:

Alkanes with names, molecular formula and structural formula.

You can see in the figure above all the condensed structural formulas of alkanes from Methane to Decane shows all carbons attached by single bond in a straight chain. But there are the type of alkanes with a structure having a branch or group(functional group) attached to such a single chain structure.

Hence, keeping this in mind, structure of alkanes can be of two types:

No.1- Alkanes with a single straight carbon chain structure where there is no branch or group or substituent attached to it. 

No.2- Alkanes with a branch or group or substituent, attached to a straight carbon chain structure. This type of alkanes are called "branched alkane".

Let' understand these two types of alkanes with an example of Butane. 

Isomers of Butane

The above 3 structures of Butane contains five carbon atoms. Of which, the first structure is a single straight chain of five carbon atoms, the second structure has a methyl group attached to the second carbon atom(from right) of four-carbon straight chain and the third structure has two methyl groups attached above and below to the second carbon atom of three-carbon straight chain.

These three different structures of butane are called isomers of butane.

" Alkanes with same molecular formula or empirical formula, but different structural formula are called isomers".

Along with the substituents or akyl branch, functional groups are also found attached to the alkanes, which gives a set of unique chemical properties to the alkane they attached to. The same functional group undergoes same chemical reactions regardless of the alkane or any other organic compound they are attached to.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IUPAC naming Of Aromatic Compounds

Definition of Aromatic Compounds: "Compounds containing benzene ring have distinctive fragrances. Hence, benzene family compounds are called Aromatic compounds . Example: Toluene, Aniline and Phenol". Figure 1.1 Long form of IUPAC: "International union of pure and applied chemistry". Aromatic compounds having benzene in their structural formula have been important in Chemistry. In the IUPAC naming of  aromatic compounds  common names of derivatives of benzene, such as Toluene, Aniline and Phenol, are used to name the whole compound. Figure  below shows the structure of Toluene, Aniline and Phenol: Let's see how these derivatives of benzene are named: No.1)   Figure 1.2 W hen benzene ring has only one substituent, there is no need of numbering. And as per IUPAC, first comes the name of substituent, followed by the common name  benzene. Example: Toluene, Aniline, and Phenol. No.2)   Figure 1.3 When benzene ring has more than one substituent, then, start ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Scientists Think ?

Today, Modern science and technology has given us all the possible luxuries and amenities that previous generations could not. And it won't be an exaggeration if I told you that all this development in science and technology would not have been possible without these scientists from respective fields. Their education, working style, Intelligent quotient, and hard work has inspired every science enthusiast to become a scientist and contribute to over all wellbeing of the society. You might have read books or heard stories or seen in the movies about Einstein or Nikola Tesla and many others like how these scientists had a magical and mystical aura around them. For the first time, in my childhood, when I saw a time travel movie,I was so awstuck by the phenomenon that I could not sleep whole night. But by adulthood I got to know that time travel theory is still in its juvenile state and yet to be explored. What makes these scientists different form us and So, the question arises here, ...
Post a Comment
Read more