Alkyne

An alkyne is a molecule that has a triple bond between two carbon atoms. They have general formula CnH2n-2. They are also called acetylenes. The smallest alkyne is acetylene, also called ethyne. Alkynes are hydrophobic: this means they dissolve well in organic solvents but not in water.

Alkynes are more reactive than usual hydrocarbons. For example, they are more reactive than alkenes in many reactions. If the alkyne is at the end of a molecule, it is easy to remove the proton with a strong base. Then, the alkyne can be used in addition reactions. For example, it can be added to a ketone. Alkynes are also easy to reduce to double bonds. They can be made into both trans and cis double bonds. Alkynes are also used a lot in pericyclic reactions.

 Physical structure 
Alkynes have a 180 degrees angle between the two carbon atoms. For this reason, they do not like to be in a cyclic compound. Some examples of alkynes are shown below.


 List of alkynes 
The following is a list of the first 15 alkynes:

 Ethyne C2H2
 Propyne C3H4
 Butyne C4H6
 Pentyne C5H8
 Hexyne C6H10
 Heptyne C7H12
 Octyne C8H14
 Nonyne C9H16
 Decyne C10H18
 Undecyne C11H20
 Dodecyne C12H22
 Tridecyne C13H24
 Tetradecyne C14H26
 Pentadecyne C15H28
 Hexadecyne C16H30

 References 

Category:Hydrocarbons
Category:Functional groups