In short
An alkane is a hydrocarbon in which all the carbon-carbon bonds are single bonds. Alkanes are called saturated because they hold the greatest number of hydrogen atoms possible.
Alkanes have the general formula . The first four are methane, ethane, propane and butane. They are not very reactive, burn well and are the main part of natural gas and petrol. Alkenes () and alkynes () have double and triple bonds, so they are unsaturated.
Propane has , so its formula is . Every carbon atom has four single bonds.
Also searched as: are alkanes saturated, saturated hydrocarbons, carbon compound.
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