31. Many solid alkanes find use as paraffin wax, for example, in candles. 32. Specific examples include paraffin waxes in the straight-chain n-alkanes series. 33. In terms of reactivity, cyclobutane is relatively inert and behaves like ordinary alkanes . 34. There is ( in principle ) a silicon analogue for all carbon alkanes derivatives. 35. Barium chromate is also used in the composition of a catalyst for alkane dehydration. 36. Recent work on alkane metathesis has received attention. 37. For example, alkenes can be reduced to alkanes , or formaldehyde to methanol. 38. Joback assumed a constant contribution of added groups in homologous series like the alkanes . 39. The number of carbon atoms may be thought of as the size of the alkane . 40. Alkanes experience intermolecular van der Waals forces.