Physical properties of alkanes
- alkanes are mostly are non-polar because the electronegativity of carbon and hydrogen are similar
- they have low melting points
- increasing van der waals due to chain length increasing so more electrons
- alkanes with branched chains have lower melting points than straight chain alkanes with the same number of carbon atoms, because the atoms can't PACK CLOSELY TOGETHER so van der waals aren't that strong
- alkanes are insoluble in water because h2o molecules are held by H-bonds which are stronger than van der waals
- alkanes mix with other non-polar liquids