HYDROCARBONS

Hydrocarbons
 Organic molecules contain carbon combined with other elements.
 Organic molecules are grouped into families
• Members of a family share common structural, physical, and chemical
characteristics.
 There are four families that contain molecules made of only carbon
and hydrogen.
 Hydrocarbons
• Alkanes
• Alkenes
• Alkynes
• Aromatics
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Alkanes
 Alkanesare hydrocarbons that contain only
carbon-carbon single bonds.
 Everycarbon atom participates in 4 single bonds,
either to another carbon or to hydrogen.
 Every hydrogen atom is bonded to carbon by a single
bond.
 Non-polar and relatively low boiling point and they
interact with each other only through London
dispersion forces. 5
Alkanes
 Alkanes in which the carbons are connected in a
straight chain are called normal alkanes.
H H H H H H
H C C C C C C H n-hexane
H H H H H H
 Alkanesthat are branched are called branched
chain alkanes. H
H C H

H H H H
2-methyl-pentane
H C C C C C H
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H H H H H
Cycloalkanes
 When there are three or more carbons in a
straight chain, the ends can be joined to make
rings.
 Innaming these molecules, the prefix cyclo- is used to
indicate the ring:

 Skeletal structural formulas are used to represent the

rings in structural formulas:
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Cycloalkanes
 Innaming these molecules, the prefix cyclo- is
used to indicate the ring:
As Parent Chain As Substituent Group

C3H6
cyclopropane R cyclopropyl-

C4H8
cyclobutane R cyclobutyl-

C5H10

cyclopentane R cyclopentyl-

C6H12
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R
cyclohexane cyclohexyl-
Cycloalkanes
 Thecarbon-carbon single bonds for the carbons in a ring
are no longer free to rotate.
 This leads to a new type of isomer
 Since the two structures share the same name, they are not
constitutional isomers.

CH3 CH3 CH3 CH3

1,2-dimethylcyclohexane 1,2-dimethylcyclohexane
H H H H
H H H
H H H H
H H CH3 H
H H H H
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CH3 CH3 H CH3

Alkenes, Alkynes & Aromatic Compounds
 Theremaining three families of hydrocarbons are
unsaturated.
 Alkanes are saturated, which means they contain the maximum
number of hydrogens per carbon.
• For alkanes CnH(2n+2)

 Alkenes, Alkynes, and Aromatics are unsaturated, which

means they contain less than the maximum number of
hydrogens per carbon.
• Structurally, this means that they have carbon-carbon double or triple
bonds
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Alkenes, Alkynes & Aromatic Compounds
 Alkenesare hydrocarbons that contain at least 1
carbon-carbon double bond.
 Examples:

H H
H H C C
C C H CH2 CH2 CH2 CH3
H H
1-hexene
ethene
(ethylene) 14
 Alkenes, Alkynes & Aromatic Compounds
 Alkynesare hydrocarbons that contain at least 1
carbon-carbon triple bond.
 Examples:

H C C H
H C C CH2 CH2 CH2 CH3
ethyne
(acetylene)
1-hexyne
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Alkenes, Alkynes & Aromatic Compounds
 Aromatics are unsaturated ring molecules
 They are often drawn to look like alkenes, but they behave much
differently than alkenes.
 They have an alternating pattern of double and single bonds within a
ring.
 Benzene is an example

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Alkenes, Alkynes & Aromatic Compounds
 The
physical properties of all hydrocarbons are the
same
 They have essentially one noncovalent interaction,
which is the London dispersion force.
 They have no electronegative atoms and therefore have
• No ion/ion interactions
• No dipole/dipole interactions
• No hydrogenbonding interactions
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Alkenes, Alkynes & Aromatic Compounds
 Naming of Alkenes and Alkynes works the same as for alkanes, with
these added rules:
 The parent chain must include both carbons in all double and triple bonds.
• Pick the longest chain that also contains all double and triple bonds

 The -ene ending is used of alkenes

 The -yne ending is used for alkynes.
 The number of the first carbon in the double or triple
bond is included in the name to locate the double or
triple bond.
• Number the parent chain from the end that is close to the first double or triple bond.
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Alkenes, Alkynes & Aromatic Compounds
 Naming of Aromatics is based on benzene:
 When the molecule is built on benzene, the parent name is
“benzene”.
 There are also many common names used to describe aromatic
compounds.

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Alkenes, Alkynes & Aromatic Compounds

 Naming of Aromatics is based on benzene:

 Aromaticcompounds can contain multiple
aromatic rings

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Alkenes, Alkynes & Aromatic Compounds
 Benzo(a)pyrene found in tobacco smoke is converted to
carcinogenic products in the liver (see below) which link
to DNA and cause mutations.

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