Learning Objectives and Introduction

Opens with the unit's learning objectives -- classifying hydrocarbons by the carbon-carbon bond type, IUPAC naming, preparation methods, free-radical terminology (initiation/propagation/termination), the halogenation/combustion/cracking chemistry of alkanes, Markovnikov's rule and the peroxide effect for alkenes, the acidic hydrogen of alkynes, the structure and aromaticity of benzene with its electrophilic substitution mechanism, the directive influence of substituents, and the toxicity/carcinogenicity of aromatic hydrocarbons -- followed by a short biography of Charles Adolphe Wurtz (discoverer of the Wurtz reaction, phosphoryl chlorides, ethylene glycol and the aldol condensation) and an introductory paragraph noting that hydrocarbons occur widely in nature (crude oil, the cyclohexane in mangoes, the undecane cockroaches secrete as a sex-attractant pheromone) and are used chiefly as fuels (e.g. LPG, a liquefied mixture of propane and butane) and as industrial solvents.