Hydrogenation refers to the reaction where hydrogen is added in the presence of unsaturated molecules. This reaction occurs when molecular hydrogen is added to unsaturated molecules with a metal catalyst.

Hydrogenation describes the chemical reaction between unsaturated molecules, and molecular hydrogen. H₂ any unsaturated compounds in the presence a catalyst like nickel, palladium, or platinum to produce the corresponding saturated compound.

Four steps can be taken to find the unsaturated reactionant from the saturated product.

1. Use DBE formulae to determine degree of unsaturation for a given molecular formula.

2. Drawing isomers

3. The unsaturated isomers that have been obtained to be hydrogenated

4.isolation and synthesis of unsaturated isomers that are responsible for 2-methylbutane

The DBE (Double bonds equivalence formulae) can be used to determine the number of unsaturation in a molecule.

Below is the formula for calculating DBE

[katex]{\rm{DBE = C – }}\frac{{\rm{H}}}{{\rm{2}}}{\rm{ – }}\frac{{\rm{X}}}{{\rm{2}}}{\rm{ + }}\frac{{\rm{N}}}{{\rm{2}}}{\rm{ + 1}}[/katex]

The number of hydrogen atoms in the area is H

The number of halogenatoms in a halogenatom is X

N is the number of nitrogenatoms

The number of carbonatoms in a given carbonatom is C

Isomers are compounds that have the same chemical formula but different order of arrangement. You can draw many isomers from the unsaturated reactants given chemical formulae by using double bond equivalence.

Hydrogenation can be used to reduce alkenes, and other higher unsaturated substances, in order to produce their alkanes. The isomers are obtained by hydrogenation. The target of interest is 2-methyl butane, which is an isomer.