What is methane in organic chemistry?
Methane is a hydride of carbon or hydrogen carbide. It is the simplest alkane of alkane family with the chemical formula CH4. Methane is also known as marsh gas, sweet gas, natural gas, dung gas.
The
main component of natural gas is methane.
It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas. Methane is a nonpolar covalent compound.
Hence it is slightly soluble in water but more soluble in organic solvents (alcohol, acetone, ether, benzene, toluene etc).
Methane is lighter than air. The vapour density of methane is half of the vapour density of air.
When cooled by applying pressure, methane first becomes liquid and then solidifies. The boiling point of methane is – 161.4ᵒC and the melting point is – 183 ᵒC.
The
density of methane is 0.66 kg / cubic meter at 298K temperature and 1
atmosphere pressure.
