Alkenes are a family of hydrocarbons (compounds containing carbon and hydrogen only) containing a carbon-carbon double bond. Therefore, alkenes are unsaturated hydrocarbons.
The general formula for alkene is CnH2n where n = 2, 3, ….
There is no single carbon alkene because it need at least 2 carbon to form the double bond. Hence “methene” doesn’t exist.
Naming Alkene
As alkane, the name of straight-chain alkenes is also made up of two component parts, the stem and the suffix.
We use the same code for the stem, as the alkane.
The suffix for alkene is “ene”.
The table below shows the molecular formula and name of the first six alkenes.