Why is a single bond saturated?

1 Answer
anor277
Oct 3, 2016

"Saturation" is a bit of an old-fashioned term, that is still widely used.

Explanation:

A carbon is said to be "saturated" if it possesses the MAXIMUM number of C-H bonds. "Ethane", C_2H_6, is saturated. "Ethylene", C_2H_4, is unsaturated; "acetylene", H-C-=C-H, is also unsaturated.

Formally, we say that "ethylene" and "acetylene" possess 1^@ and 2^@ of unsaturation respectively, i.e. each degree (each double bond or ring junction) represents 2 hydrogens LESS than the saturated molecule.

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