Question

Give the structural differences between saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons with two examples each.

Answer 1

Organic compound:

• The organic compound in which one or more atoms of carbon are covalently linked to atoms of other elements, most commonly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen.
• The general molecular formula for hydrocarbon compounds is ${\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{x}}{\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{y}}$.
• The hydrocarbons can be of two types, saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons.

Saturated Hydrocarbon	Unsaturated hydrocarbons
The simplest hydrocarbons in which carbon-carbon atoms and carbon-hydrogen atoms are held together by single bonds are known as saturated hydrocarbon	The hydrocarbons in which Carbon-Carbon atoms and Carbon-Hydrogen atoms are held together by the double or triple bond are known as unsaturated Hydrocarbons.
They have Sp3 hybridized Carbon atoms and are called alkanes	The double-bonded compounds are called alkenes and the general formula for alkenes is ${\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{n}}{\mathrm{H}}_{2\mathrm{n}}$.
They are having a general formula ${\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{n}}{\mathrm{H}}_{2\mathrm{n}+2}$.	The triple bonded compounds are called alkynes and the general formula for alkynes is ${\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{n}}{\mathrm{H}}_{2\mathrm{n}-2}$.
An Example of saturated hydrocarbon is Ethane$\left({\mathrm{CH}}_3-{\mathrm{CH}}_3\right)$ and Propane$\left({\mathrm{CH}}_3-{\mathrm{CH}}_2-{\mathrm{CH}}_3\right)$	An example of unsaturated hydrocarbon is Ethene$\left({\mathrm{CH}}_2={\mathrm{CH}}_2\right)$ and Ethyne$\left(\mathrm{CH}\equiv \mathrm{CH}\right)$