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Why are alkanes called saturated hydrocarbons?
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organic compound
The structures of organic compounds can be depicted in condensed, expanded, and three-dimensional structural formulas.
Alkanes are referred to as saturated hydrocarbons because they contain only single chemical bonds between their carbon atoms.1
In organic chemistry, the term "saturated" indicates that the carbon atoms are bonded to the maximum possible number of hydrogen atoms. Because alkanes lack the carbon-carbon double or triple bonds found in alkenes and alkynes, they cannot undergo addition reactions to incorporate additional atoms or groups of atoms into their structure. In contrast, unsaturated compoundsāwhich possess these multiple bondsācan have those bonds partially or fully broken to accommodate new atoms, a process sometimes called a saturation reaction.21