Hydrocarbons Meaning

Hydrocarbon are the simplest of the organic compounds. As the name suggests, hydrocarbons are made from hydrogen and carbon. The basic building block is one carbon with two hydrogens are attached to the carbon. Remember carbon has vacancied four electrons in its outer shell. So it wants to bond to four atoms. Here we see hydrocarbons wiith one to four caarbons: methane (natural gas),ethane,propane,and butane (lighter fluid)