give reason: when alkanes are heated , C-C bonds rather than C-H bonds break.?
is it beacause C-H bonds have a slight polarity , they r stronger?
When alkanes are heated, not only the C-C bonds, but also the C-H bonds are broken. The breaking of various bonds on heating alkanes is a complex mechanism and is not so easy as it seems. That is why when alkanes are heated, we get varying kinds of products, including alkanes smaller than the parent alkanes, alkenes and alkynes. This suggests us that along with C-C bonds, C-H bonds are also being cleaved.
However, when comparing the relative strength of C-C and C-H bonds, then no doubt C-H bonds are stronger than C-C bonds because of electronegativity difference between the carbon and hydrogen, which imparts slight polarity to the C-H bond.