saturated hydrocarbons
Saturated hydrocarbons are hydrocarbons that contain only single bonds between carbon atoms. They are the simplest class of hydrocarbons. They are called saturated because each carbon atom is bonded to as many hydrogen atoms as possible. In other words, the carbon atoms are saturated with hydrogen. You can see an example of a saturated hydrocarbon in the Figure below . In this compound, named ethane, each carbon atom is bonded to three hydrogen atoms. In the structural formula, each dash - represents a single covalent bond, in which two atoms share one pair of valence electrons.