Cycloalkanes (also called
naphthenes, but distinct from
naphthalene) are types of hydrocarbon compounds that have one or more rings of
carbon atoms in the
chemical structure of their
molecules.
Alkanes are types of
organic hydrocarbon compounds that have only single
chemical bonds in their chemical structure. Cycloalkanes consist of only carbon (C) and
hydrogen (H) atoms and are saturated because there are no multiple C-C bonds to
hydrogenate (add more hydrogen to). A general
chemical formula forpila cycloalkanes would be
CnH2(n+1-g) where
n = number of C atoms and
g = number of rings in the molecule. For those cycloalkanes that have one ring in their molecules, cycloalkanes can be treated as isomers of their
alkene counterparts, for example, cyclopropane and propene both have the chemical formula C
3H
6. Cycloalkanes with a single ring are named analogously to their normal
alkane counterpart of the same carbon count:
cyclopropane,
cyclobutane,
cyclopentane,
cyclohexane, etc. The larger cycloalkanes, with greater than 20 carbon atoms are typically called cycloparaffins.