Alkanes

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Hydrocarbons

• Organic Molecule: any molecule that contains carbon
• Hydrocarbon: molecule containing only hydrogen and carbon
• Saturated Hydrocarbon: hydrocarbon where there exist only single bonds between carbon atoms

Alkanes

• Hydrocarbon with all single bonds
• Thus, it is a saturated hydrocarbon
• $C_n{H}_{2n+2}$

Chemical Properties of Alkanes

• Not reactive
• However, it will react with certain substances in certain conditions
• Substitution reactions
  • Halogenation (reaction with halogen)
    • $C{H}_4+C{l}_2\to C{H}_{3}Cl+HCl$
      • Not Hydrochloric acid
      • Hydrogen Chloride
  • Requires UV light to break C-H bond
  • Slow decolorisation occurs

Combustion

• Fuel burns in oxygen
• Exothermic reaction
• Complete combustion: there is an excess of $O_2$
  • $O_2+x\to C{O}_2+H_{2}O+energy$
• Incomplete combustion: there is a limited supply of $O_2$
  • $O_2+x\to CO+H_{2}O+energy$
  • $O_2+x\to C+H_{2}O+energy$