Hydrocarbon

Molecules consisting only of carbon and hydrogen molecules. The entire organic chemistry is based on these molecules, as is the entire cell substance of living bodies. Despite the chemical simplicity of the basic compound, the diversity of hydrocarbons is limitless and forms the basis of all organic chemistry. Just the group of alkenes, the single-bonded linear carbon chains, include the petroleum fractions methane, ethane, butane, propane, as well as all the resulting polymers such as polyethylene with macro-molecules which can comprise 100,000 and more carbon molecules. In addition, there are the unsaturated carbon compounds with carbon double or triple bonds (alkenes), as well as cycloalkanes and aromatics in which the carbon atoms are arranged in ring shape, with the hexagonal arrangement (“benzene ring”) being the most frequent but not the only ring arrangement. Also all chemical products with a basis of vegetable raw materials and fossil raw materials are based on hydrocarbons.