Good morning to each one of you. This is Ms.

Jean Marie Mendoza and I’m here today to guide you to a new lesson
which is Alkanes.

What is first Alkanes?

Alkanes are organic compounds that consist entirely of single-bonded carbon and hydrogen atoms and lack any
other functional groups.

When we say single bond, it is a chemical bond in which one pair of electrons is shared by two atoms in a molecule
especially when the atoms can share more than one pair of electrons — compare double bond, triple bond.

Take a look to this picture :

Alkanes have the general formula CnH2n+2 and can be subdivided into the following three groups: the
linear straight-chain alkanes, branched alkanes, and cycloalkanes.

Let us also remember that Alkanes are also saturated hydrocarbons. When we say saturated
hydrocarbons, it is a carbon atom in an organic species that is bonded to other atoms only by single
bonds. Examples include methane, ethane, propane, butane and the remainder of the common alkanes..
The simplest alkane is methane. Methane contains only one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. The
other alkanes can be made by substituting carbon atoms for hydrogens.

Alkanes are the simplest and least reactive hydrocarbon species containing only carbons and hydrogens.
They are commercially very important, being the principal constituent of gasoline and lubricating oils and
are extensively employed in organic chemistry; though the role of pure alkanes (such as hexanes) is
delegated mostly to solvents.

Let us also add The distinguishing feature of an alkane, making it distinct from other compounds that also
exclusively contain carbon and hydrogen, is its lack of unsaturation. That is to say, it contains no double
or triple bonds, which are highly reactive in organic chemistry.

Though not totally devoid of reactivity, their lack of reactivity under most laboratory conditions makes
them a relatively uninteresting, though very important component of organic chemistry. As you will learn
about later, the energy confined within the carbon-carbon bond and the carbon-hydrogen bond is quite
high and their rapid oxidation produces a large amount of heat, typically in the form of fire.

Let us proceed to the properties of Alkanes

Alkanes are the simplest family of hydrocarbons - compounds containing carbon and hydrogen only with
only carbon-hydrogen bonds and carbon-carbon single bonds. Alkanes are not very reactive and have
little biological activity; all alkanes are colorless and odorless.

In terms of chemical properties of alkanes:

Alkanes is a covalent compound which has a relatively low boiling and melting point. The low boiling
and melting point of alkane usually determined by the amount of the carbon atom and the carbon atom’s
chain structure. Generally low boiling and melting point has this kind of pattern:
 1. The more the carbon atom or the longer the chain in an alkane compound, the higher its boiling
and melting point.
2. The more the branches in the carbon chain, the lower its boiling and melting point.

In terms of physical properties:

It is a saturated hydrocarbon and all of its bond is a complete covalent bond. As a result, hydrocarbon is a
rather less reactive compound which makes it called “paraffin” which means that it has a rather low
power join and also a rather low reactive join. The longer its carbon chain, the less its reactivity. The
reaction in alkanes usually is a substitute reaction, which is a hydrogen atom replacement reaction in an
alkane.

Let’s move on to Nomenclature of Alkanes

The names of all alkanes end with –ane.

The devising of the name according to IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry):

1. Unbranched Alkanes

 The alkanes with unbranched carbon chains are named based on the number of carbon (C) in the
chain and will start with n (n=normal).
 Example of Alkanes: C4H10

2. Branched Alkanes

 Specify the longest chain to be the alkane name. If there’s two or more choose the one with the
most branch. The longest chain may not be written in a straight line
 Name it with the appropriate alkane name.
 Specify the branch (alkil).
 Branch numbering starts from the lowest one.
 If the branch is more than one : the different branch arranged based on the alphabet of the branch
( ignore all prefix such as di, tri, tetra, penta except for ISO).
 If there’s multiple branch that are the same, the name of the branch with the same amount of C is
mentioned one time but with a prefix that state all of its branches.
 The number of the Carbon atom (C) where the branches are should be written based on the
number of the branches. 2 = di, 3= tri, 4 = tetra etc.
 The name should be written in one sentence. Divided with numbers and with coma (,).
 In front of the prefix, list the numbers of each unit in the molecule and divide the letter and
numbers with a hyphen (-)

These are the first 10 Alkanes:

methane CH4

ethane C2H6
propaneC3H8

butane C4H10

pentane C5H12

hexane C6H14

heptane C7H16

octane C8H18

nonane C9H20

decane C10H22

Here are some trivia to encounter:

 Alkanes are called paraffins because they have a little affinity towards a general reagent.
Alkanes are inert substances. They undergo reactions under drastic conditions.
 The simplest alkane is methane, which is made of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms.
 Saturated hydrocarbons (there is no carbon-carbon double bond therefore the number of the H
atoms are maximum).
 Difficult to react.
 Solubility: almost insoluble in water but easily dissolve in non-polar solvent.
 The density increase with the increase of the C elements.
 Main source of natural gas and petroleum
 Alkanes combust (react rapidly with oxygen) releasing energy, which makes alkanes useful as
fuels.

Uses of Alkanes:

Alkanes are important raw materials of the chemical industry and the principal constituent of gasoline and
lubricating oils. Natural gas mainly contains methane and ethane and is used for heating and cooking
purposes and for power utilities (gas turbines).

Common usage of alkanes in natural gas

heating/cooling house (air conditioning)

How are alkanes used as fuels? The alkanes are highly combustible and are valuable as clean fuels,
burning to form water and carbon dioxide.