An alkene is an unsaturated hydrocarbon. Unsaturated means that it contains at least one double bond and hence, does not have maximum number of hydrogen atoms.
General formula for alkenes: CnH₂n
If (n = 3), the compound would be:
C₃H₂₍₃₎ = C₃H₆
Every alkene’s name ends in ‘-ene’.
An alkene’s prefix always changes according the number of carbon atoms present in the compound.
There cannot be an alkene with only 1 carbon atom. There needs to be a minimum of two carbon atoms for there to be a double bond present. So there is no alkene named methene.
Name of Alkene | No. of Carbon atoms | Formula |
Ethene | 2 | C₂H₄ |
Propene | 3 | C₃H₆ |
Butene | 4 | C₄H₈ |
Pentene | 5 | C₅H₁₀ |
Hexene | 6 | C₆H₁₂ |
Heptene | 7 | C₇H₁₄ |
Octene | 8 | C₈H₁₆ |
Nonene | 9 | C₉H₁₈ |
Decene | 10 | C₁₀H₂₀ |