| Saturated
and Unsaturated Hydrocarbons |
| Carbon has four
unpaired valence electrons. As shown in the
below figure, each of these electrons is available
for pairing with an electron from another atom,
such as hydrogen, to form a covalent bond. |
 |
| Four valence
electrons of carbon, pairs with four hydrogen
atoms to form methane. |
| The hydrocarbons
in which each carbon atom is bonded to four
neighboring atoms by four single covalent bonds are
known as saturated hydrocarbons. The term saturated
means that each carbon has as many atoms
bonded to it as possible. Eg: Methane, Ethane,
Propane etc,. |
| A hydrocarbon containing
a multiple bond–either double or triple–is known
as an unsaturated hydrocarbon .
Because of the multiple bond, two of the carbons
are bonded to fewer than four other atoms. These
carbons are thus said to be unsaturated
. Eg: Ethene, Butene, Ethyne, Octyne etc,.
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