The structures of some common fatty acids
are shown in Table 11.1.
Fatty acids are long chain carboxylic acids.
Most fatty acids contain an even number of
carbon atoms because they are derived from
two carbon units.
Some fatty acids contain one or more
double bonds (unsaturated). In the IUPAC
nomenclature the position(s) of the double
bond(s) is indicated by the number of the first
carbon atom as a superscript to the symbol
.
The naturally occurring configuration of the
double bond is almost exclusively cis as shown
for oleate and linolenate in Fig 11.3.
As shown in Table 11.1 the melting points
of saturated fatty acids increase as the number
of carbon atoms increases due to increased van
der Waals interactions between molecules.