Hexene

Not to be confused with hexane or hexen.

In organic chemistry, hexene is a hydrocarbon with the chemical formula C₆H₁₂. The prefix "hex" is derived from the fact that there are 6 carbon atoms in the molecule, while the "-ene" suffix denotes that there is an alkene present—two carbon atoms are connected via a double bond. There are several isomers of hexene,^[1] depending on the position and geometry of the double bond in the chain. One of the most common industrially useful isomers is 1-hexene, an alpha-olefin. Hexene is used as a comonomer in the production of polyethylene.

Isomers

The following is a partial list of hexenes.

Name	Structural formula	CAS Number	Melting point[2] (°C)	Boiling point[2] (°C)	Density[2] (g/cm3)	Refractive index[2] (589 nm)
1-hexene		592-41-6	−139.76	63.48	0.6685 (25 °C)	1.3852 (25 °C)
(E)-2-hexene		4050-45-7	−133	67.9	0.6733 (25 °C)	1.3936 (20 °C)
(Z)-2-hexene		7688-21-3	−141.11	68.8	0.6824 (25 °C)	1.3979 (20 °C)
(E)-3-hexene		13269-52-8	−115.4	67.1	0.6772 (20 °C)	1.3943 (20 °C)
(Z)-3-hexene		7642-09-3	−137.8	66.4	0.6778 (20 °C)	1.3947 (20 °C)

There are a total of 13 different alkene isomers of hexene, excluding additional geometric (E/Z) and optical (R/S) isomers:

• hex-1-ene
• hex-2-ene (E/Z)
• hex-3-ene (E/Z)
• 2-methylpent-1-ene
• 3-methylpent-1-ene (R/S)
• 4-methylpent-1-ene
• 2-methylpent-2-ene
• 3-methylpent-2-ene (E/Z)
• 4-methylpent-2-ene (E/Z)
• 2,3-dimethylbut-1-ene
• 3,3-dimethylbut-1-ene
• 2-ethylbut-1-ene
• 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ene

See also

• cyclohexene
• neohexene