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Determination of absolute photoionization cross-sections of alkanes and cyclo-alkanes

Zhongyue Zhou1, Lidong Zhang, Mingfeng Xie

  • 1National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230029, PR China.

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry : RCM
|April 15, 2010
PubMed

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The low reactivity in alkanes can be attributed to the non-polar nature of C–C and C–H σ bonds. Alkanes, therefore, were  initially termed as “paraffins,” derived from the Latin words: parum, meaning “too little,” and affinis, meaning “affinity.”
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Alkanes are nonpolar molecules due to the presence of only carbon and hydrogen atoms. The electronegativity difference between carbon and hydrogen is minimal, and hence alkanes have a zero dipole moment. This leads to the presence of only dispersion forces between the molecules. The strength of dispersion forces is dependent on the surface area of the molecules on which they act. Since the surface area increases with the molecular length for straight-chain alkanes, the dispersion forces also...
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