Alkanes

Family name: suffix: -ane

• The simplest hydrocarbon contains a single carbon atom bonded to 4 hydrogens (CH₄). The name of the compound is generated by adding the family suffix to the root name. i.e. a single carbons root name is meth, the family suffix is ane, therefore this compound is methane. Others hydrocarbons are treated in the same manner.

There are several conventions for writing chemical formula and structures. In general the chemical formula will indicate the total number of each type of atom in the compound, i.e. C₅H₁₀O₂. This does not give an indication of the structure of the compound. However there are several methods of relaying structural information. The first is a structural formula, i.e. CH₃CH₂CH₂CH₂COOH where the atoms are written out in the order they are bonded together. Another common method of displaying structural information is line drawings. In this style of diagram straight lines connect carbon atoms. Thus, unless otherwise indicated, each end of a straight line segment is a carbon atom. Hydrogen atoms are present to fill the 4 possible bonds the carbon atom may form. It is common to leave out all of the hydrogen atoms, except those bonded to heteroatoms (N, O, S...). i.e.
 
 

The structural formula and names for the simple alkanes are shown in the following table.
 

Number of  C atoms	Formula	Line Drawing	Alkane Name	3D Model
1	CH4	N/A	methane
2	C2H6		ethane
3	C3H8 or CH3CH2CH3		propane
4	C4H10 or CH3(CH2)2CH3		butane
5	C5H12 or CH3(CH2)3CH3		pentane
6	C6H14 or CH3(CH2)4CH3		hexane
7	C7H16 or CH3(CH2)5CH3		heptane
8	C8H18 or CH3(CH2)6CH3		octane
9	C9H20 or CH3(CH2)7CH3		nonane
10	C10H22 or CH3(CH2)8CH3		decane

Next Page: Branched Alkanes-Multiple Substituents

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