Any of a series of unsaturated, open chain hydrocarbons with one or more carbon-carbon double bonds, having the general formula CnH2n.
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Any of a series of unsaturated, open chain hydrocarbons with one or more carbon-carbon double bonds, having the general formula CnH2n.
One of the class of acyclic hydrocarbons containing one or more carbon-to-carbon double bonds. Alkenes (also called olefins) and alkynes (also called acetylenes) together constitute the family of organic compounds called unsaturated hydrocarbons, since they contain less than the number of hydrogens found in the corresponding saturated compound, alkane. When the double bond is present in a nonaromatic ring (alicyclic hydrocarbon), the compound is termed a cycloalkene. Hydrocarbons containing more than one double bond are termed dienes, trienes, and so forth, or collectively, polyenes. See also Alicyclic hydrocarbon; Alkane;
In naming alkenes by the system of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the longest chain containing the double bond is identified. The presence of the double bond is indicated by changing the “-ane” ending of the alkane having the same number of carbon atoms to “-ene,” and the position of the double bond is indicated by a prefixed number. Examples are given in the table, with common or nonsystematic names which are still frequently used given in parentheses.

The lower alkenes and dienes which have up to five carbon atoms are gases at room temperature and pressure. Higher alkenes are colorless liquids or solids. Like other hydrocarbons, alkenes are insoluble in water. Liquid alkenes have specific gravities well below 1.0. Alkenes may undergo polymerization, cyclization, and addition reactions. A major share of structural and elastic polymers are based on homopolymers or copolymers of alkenes and dienes. Alkenes and dienes cyclize readily under various conditions.
Addition reactions of alkenes are among the most important in the entire field of organic chemistry. Industrially, high-octane gasoline is made by the acid-catalyzed alkylation of the three-and four-carbon alkenes. A variety of alkylated aromatics are made by the alkylation of benzene with olefins.
The commercially important alkenes are produced on a large scale in the petroleum industry by thermal or catalytic cracking processes. In the laboratory, most methods for the preparation of alkenes involve some type of elimination reaction, in which atoms or groups on adjacent carbon atoms are removed with concomitant formation of the carbon-carbon double bond. See also
An aliphatic hydrocarbon containing a double bond.
In organic chemistry, an alkene, olefin, or olefine is an unsaturated chemical compound containing at least one carbon-to-carbon double bond. The simplest alkenes, with only one double bond and no other functional groups, form a homologous series of hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n.
The simplest alkene is ethylene (C2H4), which has the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) name ethene. Alkenes are also called olefins (an archaic synonym, widely used in the petrochemical industry) or vinyl compounds.
As predicted by the VSEPR model of electron pair repulsion, the molecular geometry of alkenes includes bond angles about each carbon in a double bond of about 120°. The angle may vary because of steric strain introduced by nonbonded interactions created by functional groups attached to the carbons of the double bond. For example, the C-C-C bond angle in propylene is 123.9°. The alkene double bond is stronger than a single covalent bond and also shorter with an average bond length of 133 picometres. It is a common error, among materials science teachers especially, to group the molecule Benzene (C6H6) with the alkenes due to its "double" bonds.
Like single covalent bonds, double bonds can be described in terms of overlapping atomic orbitals, except that unlike a single bond (which consists of a single sigma bond), a carbon-carbon double bond consists of one sigma bond and one pi bond. This is exactly why methene does not exist, simply because of the absence of the C=C double bond.
Each carbon of the double bond uses its three sp2 hybrid orbitals to form sigma bonds to three atoms. The unhybridized 2p atomic orbitals, which lie perpendicular to the plane created by the axes of the three sp2 hybrid orbitals, combine to form the pi bond.
Because it requires a large amount of energy to break a pi bond (264 kJ/mol in ethylene), rotation about the carbon-carbon double bond is very difficult and therefore severely restricted. As a consequence substituted alkenes may exist as one of two isomers called a cis isomer and a trans isomer. For example, in cis-2-butylene the two methyl substituents face the same side of the double bond and in trans-2-butylene they face the opposite side.
It is certainly not impossible to twist a double bond. In fact, a 90° twist requires an energy approximately equal to half the strength of a pi bond. The misalignment of the p orbitals is less than expected because pyridalization takes place (See: pyramidal alkene). trans-Cyclooctene is a stable strained alkene and the orbital misalignment is only 19° with a dihedral angle of 137° (normal 120°) and a degree of pyramidalization of 18°. This explains the dipole moment of 0.8 D for this compound (cis-isomer 0.4 D) where a value of zero is expected.[1] The trans isomer of cycloheptene is only stable at low temperatures.
The physical properties of alkenes are comparable with alkanes. The physical state depends on molecular mass (gases from ethene to butene - liquids from pentene onwards). The simplest alkenes, ethylene, propylene and butylene are gases. Linear alkenes of approximately five to sixteen carbons are liquids, and higher alkenes are waxy solids.
Alkenes are relatively stable compounds, but are more reactive than alkanes due to their double carbon-carbon bond. Although stronger than the single carbon-carbon bond in alkanes, the majority of the reactions of alkenes involve the rupture of this double bond, forming two new single bonds.
Alkenes serve as a feedstock for the petrochemical industry because they can participate in a wide variety of reactions.
Alkenes react in many addition reactions, which occur by opening up the double-bond.
Alkenes are oxidized with a large number of oxidizing agents.
Polymerization of alkenes is an economically important reaction which yields polymers of high industrial value, such as the plastics polyethylene and polypropylene. Polymerization can either proceed via a free-radical or an ionic mechanism.
For unsymmetrical products the more substituted carbons (those with fewer hydrogens) tend to form more stable sites for double bonds (see Saytzeff's rule).
To form the root of the IUPAC names for alkenes, simply change the -an- infix of the parent to -en-. For example, CH3-CH3 is the alkane ethANe. The name of CH2=CH2 is therefore ethENe.
In higher alkenes, where isomers exist that differ in location of the double bond, the following numbering system is used:
When an alkene has more than one substituent, the double bond geometry is described using the labels E and Z. These labels come from the German words "entgegen" meaning "opposite" and "zusammen" meaning "together". Alkenes with the higher priority groups on the same side of the double bond have these groups together and are designated Z. Alkenes with the higher priority groups on opposite sides are designated E.
| Alkenes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ethylene |
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Propylene |
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Butylene |
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Pentylene |
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Hexylene |
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| Functional groups |
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| Chemical class: Alcohol • Aldehyde • Alkane • Alkene • Alkyne • Amide • Amine • Azo compound • Benzene derivative • Carboxylic acid • Cyanate • Disulfide • Ester • Ether • Haloalkane • Imine • Isocyanide • Isocyanate • Ketone • Nitrile • Nitro compound • Nitroso compound • Peroxide • Phosphoric acid • Pyridine derivative • Sulfone • Sulfonic acid • Sulfoxide • Thioester • Thioether • Thiol |
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