Carbon Compounds

Carbon compounds are compounds than consist of carbon atoms. Carbon compounds are divided into two groups, organic compounds and inorganic compounds. Organic compounds come from living things such as animals and plants. A few examples are petrol, natural gas, alcohol, sugar, fats and oils, protein and so on. Inorganic compounds come from the earth or minerals such as carbon dioxide, cyanide compounds, carbonate compounds and so on. There are three types or carbon bonds. The first one is alkane. It is a made up of a single covalent bond between two carbon atoms or a carbon atom with another atom. The next one is alkenes. Alkenes are made up of a double covalent bond between two carbon atoms. The last one is alkynes. It is made up of a triple covalent bond between two carbon atoms.

Hydrocarbons compounds are compounds that consist of carbon and hydrogen atoms only. The major sources of hydrocarbons are petroleum and natural gas. Let us talk about Alkanes. Alkanes are known as saturated hydrocarbons because they contain only single bonds and have no room to accommodate additional atoms. The general formula of alkanes is CnH2n+2 where n=1,2,3... The functional group of alkanes is the single covalent bonds between carbon atoms. They are insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents. Alkanes have low melting and boiling points because the attraction forces between the molecules are weak can der Waals' forces. However, the larger the molecular size, the stronger the van der Waals' forces of attraction between the molecules. Thus, more energy is needed to overcome the forces of attractions. Therefore the melting and boiling points increase gradually as it decends in the series.