Why does the melting point of fatty acids decrease with the number of double bonds present?
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| The melting point decreases as number of double bonds present increase because more double bonds makes the hydrocarbon chain to bend rather than remaining compact tightly together like in saturated fatty acids. When the hydrocarbon chain bends due to many double bonds, the van der waals forces of attraction between the fatty acids decreases hence the melting point decreases as well. Explanation Fatty acids can either be saturated or unsaturated. Saturated fatty acids have less to no double bonds in the hydrocarbon chain while unsaturated fatty acids have more than one double bond in the hydrocarbon chain. Unsaturated fatty acids lack the compact arrangement which decreases the melting point and boiling point. |
