Aliphatic compound hydrogen, other elements can be bound to the carbon chain, the most common being oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine. The least complex aliphatic compound is methane (CH). Most aliphatic compounds are flammable, allowing the use of hydrocarbons as fuel, such as methane in Bunsen burners and as liquefied natural gas (LNG), and acetylene in welding. The most important aliphatic compounds are: Important examples of low-molecular aliphatic compounds can be found in the list below (sorted by the number of carbon-atoms): Aliphatic compound In organic chemistry, hydrocarbons (compounds composed of carbon and hydrogen) are divided into two classes: aromatic compounds and
Asymmetric carbon for all then-known phenomena of molecular asymmetry (which involved a carbon atom bearing four different atoms or groups). Knowing the number of asymmetric carbon atoms, one can calculate the maximum possible number of stereoisomers for any given molecule as follows: As an example, malic acid has 4 carbon atoms but just one of them is asymmetric. The asymmetric carbon atom is the one attached to two carbon atoms, an oxygen atom, and a hydrogen atom. One may initially be inclined to think this atom is not asymmetric because it is attached to two carbon atoms, but because those two carbon