This document provides information about alkanes, including their structure and properties. Alkanes are saturated hydrocarbons that contain only single bonds between carbons. They have a tetrahedral shape with carbon-carbon bond angles of 109.5 degrees. Examples of small alkanes like butane, ethyl pentane, and 2,3-dimethylhexane are shown with explanations. The document also notes that larger alkanes with 35 or more carbons are often found in asphalt.
2. Essential Information
• Alkane- A compound that only contains single bonds
and is saturated.
• Saturated- In this case saturated means it has the
maximum amount of Hydrogen that the Carbons are
capable of holding.
• The shape of Alkane bonds is called Tetrahedral.
• The bond angle of Alkane bonds is 109.5 degrees.
• The single bonds within an Alkane do rotate freely.
3. Butane
Explanation: In this model the
black balls signify Carbon and
the grey connectors in
between each ball represent
a single bond. The white balls
represent Hydrogen. Since
this is Butane there are 4
Carbons and 10 Hydrogens.
4. Ethyl
Pentane
Explanation: In this
model the longest chain
is 5 Carbons long. Then
there is a branch off of
the 3rd Carbon that has
2 Carbons. There are a
total of 16 Hydrogens.
2,3
Dimethyl
Hexane
Explanation: In this
model the longest chain
is 6 Carbons long. Then
there is 1 Carbon
hanging off the 2nd
Carbon and then there is
one hanging off of the
3rd Carbon. Then there
is a total of 18
Hydrogens.
5. Interesting Fact
• Alkanes of 35 Carbons or
more are most of the time
found in asphalt. The higher
the amount of Carbons in the
parent chain causes the
probability of the asphalt
cracking to increase.
• The picture is
Pentatriacontane. (Which is
the Alkane with 35 Carbons)
6. Summary
• While studying this topic I learned about how to
draw a line diagram, how to count the Carbons
within a compound in order to name the
compound, and what shape Alkanes have. I also
learned the bond angle of Alkanes.
