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ALKANES2
ALKANES2
INTRODUCING
ALKANES
AND
CYCLOALKANES
Alkanes are the simplest
family of hydrocarbons -
compounds containing
carbon and hydrogen only.
They only contain carbon-
hydrogen bonds and
carbon-carbon single
bonds. The first six are:
methane CH4
ethane C2H6
propane C3H8
butane C4H10
pentane C5H12
hexane C6H14
You can work out the formula of any of
them using:
CnH2n+2
Isomerism
butane 2-methylpropane
NAMING OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
2-methylpropan-1-ol
The other two parts of the name tell
C–C–C–C–C
Put a methyl group on the number 2
carbon atom:
C–C–C–C–C
I
CH3
Does it matter which end you
start counting from? No - if you
counted from the other end, you
would draw the next structure.
That's exactly the same as the
first one, except that it has been
flipped over.
Finally, all you have to do is
to put in the correct number
of hydrogen atoms on each
carbon so that each carbon
is forming four bonds.
Example 2: Write the structural formula
for 2,3-dimethylbutane.