How do hydrocarbons differ in structure from carbohydrates?

Hydrocarbons are chains of carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen and sometimes functional groups whereas carbohydrates have more complex structures made up of sugars made of mainly hydrogen, carbon and oxygen.

Hydrocarbons contain only hydrogen and carbon. Carbohydrates contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen with an empirical formula of C . H2O ( hence the name carbo + hydrate).

Hydrocarbons are compounds containing only Hydrogen and Carbon atoms (e.g. Alkanes and Alkenes), whereas Carbohydrates are organic compounds that form the supporting tissues in plants and are important for animals to intake to be healthy (part of a balanced diet).

Hydrocarbons are simply made by carbon and hydrogen. Nevertheless there is a wide variety of hydrocarbons, due to the different bonds that can be formed by carbon atoms with other carbon atoms.

Carbohydrates are carbon-based molecules that are rich in hydroxyl groups (OH). Indeed, the empirical formula for many carbohydrates is (C-H2O)n-R , where R is a radical, for example an aminoacid residue.

Many different organic elements are formed by hydrocarbons by substitution, that is substituting an hyydrogen atom with a more complex radical

Hydrocarbon molecules have a particular spatial form due to the space orientation of C-H bonds. For example the methane molecule is done by the carbon atom at the center of a tetrahedron with the four hydrogen atoms at the vertices.

Complex carbohydrates-polymers of covalently linked monosaccharides-are called polysaccharides.

The main classes of hydrocarbons are:

• Saturated: when there are no multiple bonds between nearby carbon atoms;
• Unsaturated, when multiple bonds between nearby carbon atoms exist;

• Aromatic, when cycles formed by carbon atoms are present;
• Non- Aromatic where the carbon atoms structure has noo closed loops;

The simplest hydrocarbons are methane (CH4) and Ethane (C2H6).

Simple carbohydrates are called monosaccharides and many of them are also normally called sugars.

A polysaccharide can be as simple as one comprising two identical monosaccharides. Or it can be as complex as one consisting of dozens of different monosaccharides that are linked to form a polysaccharide composed of millions of monosaccharides.

The variety of monosaccharides and the multiplicity of linkages forming polysaccharides mean that carbohydrates provide cells with a vast array of three-dimensional structures that can be used for a variety of purposes, as simple as energy storage or as complex as cell-cell recognition signals.