Different Types of Hydrocarbons

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In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon, and thus are group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons, from which one hydrogen atom has been removed, are functional groups called hydrocarbyls. Aromatic hydrocarbons (arenes), alkanes, cycloalkanes and alkyne-based compounds are different types of hydrocarbons.

The majority of hydrocarbons found on Earth naturally occur in crude oil, where decomposed organic matter provides an abundance of carbon and hydrogen which, when bonded, can catenate to form seemingly limitless chains. Learn the different forms of these simple, yet varied, organic compounds.

Definition of Hydrocarbons

A hydrocarbon is an organic compound made of nothing more than carbons and hydrogens. It is possible for double or triple bonds to form between carbon atoms and even for structures, such as rings, to form.

Saturated hydrocarbons have as many hydrogen atoms as possible attached to every carbon. For carbons on the end of a molecular chain, three can be attached. For carbons in the middle of a chain or a ring, two can be attached. For a carbon atom all by itself, four hydrogen atoms can be attached. Saturated hydrocarbons have only single bonds between adjacent carbon atoms.

Unsaturated hydrocarbons have double and/or triple bonds between some of the carbon atoms.

Examples of saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons.

How many ways organic compounds can be classified?

Organic compounds have been classified on the basis of structure or functional groups. The following flow chart gives brief classification of organic compounds.

Classification Based on Structure

All the known organic compounds have been divided into two main types:

1. Acyclic or Open chain compounds: Organic compounds in which the carbon atoms are linked to each other to form open chains (saturated or branched) are known as acyclic or open chain compounds. Example: 
   
   Aliphatic hydrocarbons are compounds of hydrogen and carbon that do not contain benzene rings. Aliphatic hydrocarbons tend to be flammable. These may be either saturated or unsaturated. There are several types of aliphatic hydrocarbons: alkanes, alkenes, alkynes and alkenynes. 
2. Cyclic or Closed chain compounds: Organic compounds in which the carbon atoms are linked to each other to form closed - chain or cyclic or ring structure are known as Cyclic or Closed chain compounds. The compounds with only one ring in the molecule is known as monocyclic but those with more than one ring of atoms are termed as polycyclic.

These are further classified into two subgroups,

(a) Homocyclic or Carbocyclic compounds:

Organic compounds having a ring or rings of carbon atoms only in the molecule are known as Homocyclic or carbocyclic compounds. These are again classified into two types:

1. Alicyclic Compounds: Organic Compounds which contains rings of three or more carbon atoms are known as Alicyclic Compounds. As these are resemble with aliphatic compounds rather than aromatic compounds in many respects, they are named as alicyclic i.e., aliphatic cyclic.
2. Aromatic Compounds: Organic compounds consist of at least one benzene ring, i.e., a six membered carbocyclic ring having alternate single and double bonds are known as aromatic compounds. These compounds have some fragrant odour, so named as aromatic (Greek word aroma meaning sweet smell). These are also known as benzenoid aromatics as their molecules consist of benzene ring or rings.

(b) Heterocyclic Compounds

Organic Compounds having ring or rings contain one or more than one hetero atom i.e., O, N, and S are known as Heterocyclic compounds. These are further classified into two types:

1. Alicyclic Heterocyclic Compounds: Heterocyclic compounds which resembles aliphatic compounds in their properties are known alicyclic heterocyclic compounds
2. Aromatic Heterocyclic Compounds: Heterocyclic compounds which resembles benzene or other aromatic compounds in their properties are known aromatic heterocyclic compounds.

To sum up everything, in very simple and short words, we have got you covered -

So, basically they are divided into two parts on broader level

1. Aliphatic Hydrocarbon (open chain)             
2. Cyclic Hydrocarbon  (closed chain)

Aliphatic Hydrocarbon are further divided into two parts

1. Saturated Hydrocarbon(Alkanes)
2. Unsaturated Hydrocarbon(Alkenes,Alkynes Etc)

Cyclic Hydrocarbon are fruther divided into three parts

1. Cycloalkanes Hydrocarbon
2. Cycloalkenes Hydrocarbon
3. Aromatic Hydrocarbon

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Know more about stuff related to this practical experiment (Important for Boards):-

• Qualitative Analysis for the identification of the Phenolic functional group in the organic sample
• Qualitative analysis for the identification of the functional group in the organic sample Acetic Acid (Example 1)
• Qualitative Analysis for the identification of the Carboxylic functional group in the Organic Sample
• To find the molarity and strength of the given KMnO4 solution using M/20 standard Mohr salt solution
• How to find out the mass of salt required to achieve the required concentration of a solution

Reference:-

• Verma, Dr. N.K.. Comprehensive Practical Chemistry, Class XII.
• NCERT. Chemistry Part I and II, Class XII.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocarbon
• https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-different-types-of-hydrocarbons/answer/Leon-Torres?srid=wMXm
• https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-different-types-of-hydrocarbons/answer/Peram-Brahmareddy?srid=wMXm
• https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-different-types-of-hydrocarbons/answer/Chandrajeet-Kumar-1?srid=wMXm

You may be interested to know more about fundamentals of organic chemistry, please visit - https://www.chemguide.co.uk/orgmenu.html

Search about other related topics to this article in our blog and http://www.chemistryguide.org/ (a nice and precise search engine to get your results).

For latest syllabus, both theory and practical papers for class XII, check out the CBSE’s official site http://cbseacademic.in/ for more info.

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