“Saturated Acyclic Hydrocarbons”

29011000 SATURATED ACYCLIC HYDROCARBONS

A Saturated hydrocarbon is a hydrocarbon in which all the carbon-carbon bonds are single bonds. A hydrocarbon is an organic compound whose only constituents are carbon and hydrogen. As the name suggests, saturated hydrocarbons are hydrocarbons in which all the carbon atoms are bonded to four other atoms and are ‘saturated’, implying that no carbon-carbon multiple bonds exist in these organic compounds.

• • • • Butane (C₄H₁₀)

• • • • Octane (C₈H₁₈)

• • • • Cyclohexane (C₆H₁₂)

• • • • Cyclopropane (C₃H₆)

Cycloalkanes are alkanes that have a monocyclic ring structure. Since all the carbon-carbon bonds in cycloalkanes are single bonds, they are considered to be saturated hydrocarbons. Therefore, the general formula of a saturated hydrocarbon can be written as C_nH_{(2n + 2 – 2r)}, where ‘r’ is the total number of rings in the molecule.

Types of Saturated Hydrocarbons

A saturated hydrocarbon can have a linear, branched, or ring-shaped structure and can, therefore, be classified into one of the following types:

• • • 1. Alkanes
      2. Cycloalkanes

It is important to note that even polycyclic alkanes (alkanes with several rings in their structures) are also categorized as cycloalkanes and are, therefore, a type of saturated hydrocarbons.