Alkanes are the saturated hydrocarbons containing the sigma bond only. The simplest alkane is methane containing only one carbon atom. Alkanes are also known as paraffin because of their reactivity towards chemical reactions. The carbon is in an sp3 hybridized state. Alkane exhibits the chain, position, conformational and optical isomerism. Methane is also known as marsh gas.
There are the following methods of preparation of alkanes;
Soda-lime decarboxylation
Kolbe’s electrolysis
Wurtz reaction
Frankland reaction
Reduction of alkyl halide
Reduction of unsaturated hydrocarbons
From Grignard reagent