Alkanes are hydrocarbon compounds made of carbon and hydrogen atoms connected by single bonds. They have the general formula CnH2n+2. Alkanes are saturated, meaning they have the maximum number of hydrogen atoms bonded to each carbon. Examples shown include butane, pentane, 1,2-dimethyl pentane, and 3-ethyl pentane, with structural diagrams demonstrating how carbon and hydrogen atoms are arranged. Methane is noted as the simplest alkane with one carbon and four hydrogen atoms.

1. Alkanes
Tanner Simmons

2. Alkanes
• Alkanes are chains of carbons saturated with
hydrogens with only single covalent bonds.
• A covalent bond is a chemical bond that
involves sharing a pair of electrons between
atoms in a molecule.
• Saturated means that the compound has as
many hydrogen atoms as it has room for.

3. Pictures
This is called butane
because it has four carbon
atoms in the parent chain
This is called pentane
because it has five carbon
atoms in its parent chain.

4. Pictures
This is called 1,2
dimethyl pentane
because it has five
carbon atoms with two
methyl groups.
This is called 3 ethyl
pentane because it has
an ethyl group coming
off of the pentane
parent chain

5. Fun Fact
• Methane is the simplest alkane because it only has
one carbon atom surrounded by four hydrogen
atoms. It has an molecular mass of 16, which is so
low that it is a gas at room temperature.
• http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Alkanes264132.html

6. Summary
• The most important thing that I learned on
the topic of alkanes was how to make and
draw all of the models of the molecular
compounds. Once I had the basic
understanding of those, I could build off of
them to learn the others.