Why are saturated hydrocarbons less reactive than unsaturated hydrocarbons?
Their single bonds are strong.
Hydrocarbons are organic compounds containing only carbon and hydrogen; those with only single bonds between carbon atoms are called saturated hydrocarbons, while those with double or triple bonds are called unsaturated hydrocarbons.
In saturated hydrocarbons like alkanes, each carbon is linked to its neighbours by strong, stable sigma single bonds that require a large amount of energy to break, so these molecules do not easily take part in addition or similar reactions.
Unsaturated hydrocarbons, in contrast, have weaker pi bonds along with sigma bonds; the pi electrons are loosely held and readily attack reagents, which makes alkenes and alkynes far more reactive than alkanes.
Hence, the correct answer is Their single bonds are strong.
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