Tridecane or ''n''-tridecane is an
alkane with the
chemical formula
In chemistry, a chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbol ...
CH
3(CH
2)
11CH
3. Tridecane is a combustible colourless liquid. In industry, they have no specific value aside from being components of various fuels and solvents. In the research laboratory, tridecane is also used as a
distillation chaser.
Natural occurrence
Nymphs of the
southern green shield bug produce tridecane as a dispersion/aggregation
pheromone
A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...
, which possibly serves as a defense against
predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
s.
It is also the main component of the defensive fluid produced by the stink bug ''
Cosmopepla bimaculata''.
See also
*
Higher alkanes
*
List of isomers of tridecane
References
External links
Material Safety Data Sheet for TridecanePhytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
{{alkanes
Alkanes
Hydrocarbon solvents