A hydrocarbon with sixteen carbon atoms that contains one double bond between carbons, used in chemical synthesis.
From Greek 'hex-' (six) + 'deca-' (ten) + '-ene' (unsaturated hydrocarbon with one double bond). This nomenclature became standard in organic chemistry during the late 1800s.
Unlike saturated hexadecane, hexadecene's double bond makes it much more reactive—chemists use this reactivity to create new compounds, making it a building block for everything from plastics to cosmetics.
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