What is the difference between a saturated and an unsaturated hydrocarbon?

1 Answer
Jan 27, 2016

A saturated hydrocarbon has all carbon-carbon single bonds while an unsaturated hydrocarbon has carbon-carbon multiple bonds.

Explanation:

A saturated hydrocarbon is the hydrocarbon in which all its carbon-carbon bonds are single. e.g alkanes like ethane ,propane.
An unsaturated hydrocarbon,however, is the one in which some carbon-carbon bonds can be double or triple. e.g alkenes like ethene have double bonds while alkynes like ethyne have triple bonds.