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How many H2 molecules are needed to completely hydrogenate the following molecule?

How many H2 molecules are needed to completely hydrogenate the following molecule-example-1
User Huangism
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Step 1 - Understanding the reduction of double bonds by H2

An alkene can suffer a reduction, losing its double bond and forming a single bond. This is a catalyzed hydrogenation, because we need a catalyst (like Pd/C, Pt and so on) and H2 gas.

The reaction, for a generic alkene, is as follows:

Note that this reaction only reduces C=C bonds, not C=O bonds. Also note that one mole of H2 is needed per double bond.

Step 2 - Discovering how many H2 molecules are needed

Let's first count the number of C=C bonds in the given molecule. We can see there are four C=C bonds. Since we need one molecule of H2 per single bond, we will therefore need four molecules of H2 to completely hydrogenate the given molecule.

How many H2 molecules are needed to completely hydrogenate the following molecule-example-1
User Anbusekar
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