Hydrocarbons compared with other group 14 hydrides

Hydrocarbons. —The hydrides of carbon, or hydrocarbons, are very numerous, and form an important group of substances. In many respects they are analogous to the metals, and they yield derivatives comparable with those of the metals. The preparation of some of them has already been described but in order to give a more complete idea of their structure and functions, a short description of other methods of forming them is annexed. 

Main-group elements X such as monovalent F, divalent O, and trivalent N are expected to form families of transition-metal compounds MX (M—F fluorides, M=0 oxides, M=N nitrides) that are analogous to the corresponding p-block compounds. In this section we wish to compare the geometries and NBO descriptors of transition-metal halides, oxides, and nitrides briefly with the isovalent hydrocarbon species (that is, we compare fluorides with hydrides or alkyls, oxides with alkylidenes, and nitrides with alkylidynes). However, these substitutions also bring in other important electronic variations whose effects will now be considered. 

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