2: Alkanes and Cycloalkanes Alkanes Alkane Systematic Nomenclature Cycloalkanes Conformations of Alkanes Conformations of Cycloalkanes Conformations of Alkylcyclohexanes

Preview You learned in the Chapter 1 that all organic molecules have carbon skeletons. These carbon skeletons show great diversity in the ways that C atoms bond to each other, and in their three-dimensional shapes. Alkanes and cycloalkanes consist entirely of carbon skeletons bonded to H atoms since they have no functional groups. As a result, they serve as a basis for understanding the structures of all other organic molecules. This chapter describes the skeleltal isomerism of alkanes and cycloalkanes, their three-dimensional conformations, and their systematic nomenclature that is the basis for the names of all other organic compounds.