Janina Cassandra T.

Guerrero

Grade 9 – St. Luke

Hydrocarbons are one of the major components of organic chemistry. They are organic
compounds which are made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms. The molecular formula for these
compounds is CxHy.

Classification and Types of Hydrocarbons

 Saturated hydrocarbons: They are the compounds in which carbon-carbon atoms and
carbon-hydrogen atoms are held together by single bonds. These single bonded
compounds are the simplest hydrocarbons. The general formula for these single bonded
organic compounds is CnH2n+2.

Example:
1. Alkane or Paraffin - The paraffins are major constituents of natural
gas and petroleum. Paraffins containing fewer than 5 carbon atoms per molecule
are usually gaseous at room temperature, those having 5 to 15 carbon atoms are
usually liquids, and the straight-chain paraffins having more than 15 carbon atoms
per molecule are solids. Branched-chain paraffins have a much higher octane
number rating than straight-chain paraffins and, therefore, are the more desirable
constituents of gasoline. The hydrocarbons are immiscible with water. All paraffins
are colourless.
 Methane the simplest Alkane

2. Cycloalkanes - The saturated hydrocarbons not only form only carbon-to-

hydrogen bonds, rather than the carbon-to-carbon bonds that have to then have
added hydrogen atoms. These alkanes have to prefix "cyclo" due to the
configuration of rings of carbon atoms in their structure.

 Unsaturated hydrocarbons: These compounds consist of a single, double or a triple

bond between carbon-carbon atoms. The double-bonded compounds are called alkenes
and the triple bonded compounds are called alkynes. The general formula for alkenes is
CnH2n and for alkynes the general formula is CnH2n-2.
 Example:

1. Alkenes - These unsaturated hydrocarbons are molecules that contain at least one
carbon-to-carbon double bond. With the chemical formula consisting of molecules of
CnH2n, alkenes are very common in the petrochemical industry; the simplest alkene
is ethylene, or ethane.

2. Alkynes - This category of hydrocarbons are unsaturated, and contain at least one
carbon-to-carbon triple bond. The hydrophobic acetylenes are common examples of
alkynes.

 Aromatic Hydrocarbons: These are also called as arenes. Arenes are compounds which
consist of at least one aromatic ring. These unsaturated hydrocarbons have alternating
carbon-to-carbon single or double bonds in their molecules. The term aromatic was
applied to this category of hydrocarbons before the chemical nature of aromaticity was
discovered, and they were therefore called aromatic simply because these compounds
had a pleasant smell.