Is styrene an alkene?
2 Answers
Yes.
Quote from ChemguideUK:
"Alkenes are a family of hydrocarbons (compounds containing carbon and hydrogen only) containing a carbon-carbon double bond."
Styrene is also known as phenylethene and is:
Or:
(From Wiki)
It is the monomer of polystyrene or poly(phenylethene).
Styrene is generally not classified as an alkene, it is usually regarded as an aromatic (benzene derivative).
Explanation:
Whilst styrene does have a double bond, the fact that it also contains an aromatic 6 membered ring means that its properties are far more influenced by the presence of the ring structure than they are simply by the presence of the double bond. In industry, alkenes (or "olefins" as they are known everywhere outside of schools and universities) would usually be the term for aliphatic compounds containing one or more double bonds, (ethylene, propylene, butylenes etc), but styrene would be classified under "aromatics" (along with such things as benzene, toluene and xylenes).
