Ethylene




Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula C
2H
4 or H2C=CH2. It is a colorless flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odor when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon-carbon double bonds), and the second simplest unsaturated hydrocarbon after acetylene (C
2H
2).