Why are alkenes unsaturated?

1 Answer
Mar 24, 2016

We call an organic compound saturated if all available valence bonds of the CC's are bonded to HH (or other functional groups)

Explanation:

An alkene has a double bond, which means that two of the available bonds are used to bind two CC's. This bond can be opened (under the right circumstances) to allow two more HH's into the compound.

Compare Ethene: H_2-C=C-H_2H2C=CH2

With Ethane:H_3-C-C-H_3H3CCH3

Ethane has all the HH's it can take, and is thus called "saturated"