Hydrocarbons

"Compounds which contains only carbon and hydrogen in their molecules are called hydrocarbons."

 

Types of hydrocarbons:

 
Hydrocarbon are classified into two types.

1. Aliphatic hydrocarbons/ Acyclic hydrocarbons.

➡ Aliphatic hydrocarbons are also called open chain hydrocarbons.
➡ Again classified into two types:

a. Saturated hydrocarbons.

➡ saturated means chemically unreactive.
➡ alkanes comes under saturated hydrocarbons.
➡Hydrocarbons which contains only single bonds between carbon atoms are called alkanes.(c-c)
➡General formula for alkanes:
CnH2n+2

b. Unsaturated hydrocarbons.

➡ alkenes and alkynes comes under unsaturated hydrocarbons.
➡ hydrocarbons which contains at least one double bond between carbon atoms are called alkenes.(c=c)
➡ general formula for alkenes:
CnH2n
➡ hydrocarbons which contains at least one triple bond between carbon atoms are called Alkynes.
➡ general formula for alkyne's:
CnH2n-2.

2. Cyclic hydrocarbons/ open chain hydrocarbons

➡ cycloalkanes comes under cyclic hydrocarbons.