Hydrocarbon functional groups alkanes

In our study of the simple hydrocarbons, there are only two functional groups. One is a carbon-to-carbon double bond. Hydrocarbons that contain a carbon-to-carbon double bond are alkenes. The other hydrocarbon functional group is a carbon-to-carbon triple bond. Hydrocarbons that contain a triple bond are alkynes. These functional groups are the reactive sites in the alkenes and alkynes. The result is that alkenes and alkynes are more reactive than the alkanes. 

Hydrocarbons contain only hydrogen and carbon. The hydrocarbon functional groups include alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, and arenes (aromatic compounds). Simple hydrocarbons have few medicinal applications, but are the feedstock of the petrochemical industry to produce plastics, dyes, solvents, detergents, and adhesives (to name just a few). Therefore, hydrocarbons are essential to the medical field. Additionally, all hydrocarbons are flammable and, therefore, find application as fuels. For example, gasoline is a mixture of hydrocarbons. 

When certain atoms are collected into discrete units, they have special physical and/or chemical properties. Such units are known as functional groups. The C=C unit of alkenes and the C=C unit of alkynes are examples of hydrocarbon functional groups. The C-C unit of an alkane is not considered to be a functional group because it is the backbone of virtually all organic molecules. Functional groups can include atoms other than carbon or hydrogen and the presence of these other atoms (call them heteroatoms) leads to new functional groups. 

Just as the alkanes and alkenes had general formulas, the carbon derivatives all have general formulas. The hydrocarbon backbone provides a portion of the general formula, and the functional group provides the other part. In each case, the hydrocarbon derivative is represented by the formula R-, and the hydrocarbon backbone has its own specific formula. The term substituted hydrocarbon is another name for hydrocarbon derivative, because the functional group is substituted for one or more hydrogen atoms in the chemical reaction. 

Alkanes are a class of saturated hydrocarbons with the general formula C H2n. -2- They contain no functional groups, are relatively inert, and can be either straight-chain (normal) or branched. Alkanes are named by a series of IUPAC rules of nomenclature. Compounds that have the same chemical formula but different structures are called isomers. More specifically, compounds such as butane and isobutane, which differ in their connections between atoms, are called constitutional isomers. 

An alkyl halide (also known as a haloalkane) is an alkane in which one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced with halogen atoms, such as F, Cl, Br, or I. The functional group of alkyl halides is R—X, where X represents a halogen atom. Alkyl halides are similar in structure, polarity, and reactivity to alcohols. To name an alkyl halide, first name the parent hydrocarbon. Then use the prefix fluoro-, chloro-, bromo-, or iodo-, with a position number, to indicate the presence of a fluorine atom, chlorine atom, bromine atom, or iodine atom. The following Sample Problem shows how to name an alkyl halide. 

You first should decide what type of compound it is. The decision usually is straightforward for hydrocarbons, which will fall in one or the other of the categories alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, arenes, cycloalkanes, and so on. But when the compound has more than one functional group it is not always obvious which is the parent function. For example, Compound 1 could be named as an alkene (because of the double-bond function) or as an alcohol (because of the OH function) ... 

Alkanes are almost totally insoluble in water. They are soluble in benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, and other hydrocarbons. If an alkane contains a polar functional group, the polarity of the entire molecule, and thus its solubility, decreases as tlie carbon chain is lengthened. 

Under the same conditions, several types of hydrocarbon are also converted to fully deuterated compounds. The results are summarized in Table 1. Cydooctene was also transformed into fully deuterated cydooctene without a skeletal rearrangement. As shown in entries 2 and 3, saturated hydrocarbons have also been transformed into fully deuterated compounds. As described above, an interaction between allylic C-H bonds and palladium hydride induces the H-D exchange reaction for alkenes. H-D exchange in alkanes, however, cannot be explained in this way. Direct C-H activation without assistance from any functional group may be a route to the formation of fully deuterated alkanes. 

The occurrence of hydrocarbons (usually mono- and di-alkenes) with an epoxide function group have been reported usually as sex attractants. The sex attractant of the female gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, was identified as the C18 2-methyl alkane derivative cis-7,S-epoxy-2-methyloctadecane (Bierl et al 1972). For the housefly, M. domestica, a major sex pheromone component is the C23 -alkane epoxide d.v-9,1O-cpoxytricosane (Uebel et al 1978) with a lesser quantity of 9,10-epoxyheptacosane (Mpuru et al., 2001). 

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