heptane

Heptane or '''n-heptane is the straight-chain alkane with the chemical formula or . When used as a test fuel component in anti-knock test engines, a 100% heptane fuel is the zero point of the octane rating scale (the 100 point is 100% iso-octane). Octane number equates to the anti-knock qualities of a comparison mixture of heptane and iso-octane which is expressed as the percentage of iso-octane in heptane, and is listed on pumps for gasoline (petrol) dispensed globally.

== History == Normal heptane was discovered in 1862 by Carl Schorlemmer, who, while analyzing pyrolysis products of the cannel coal mined in Wigan, identified, separated by fractional distillation and studied a series of liquid hydrocarbons inert to nitric and sulfuric acids. One of them, which he called hydride of heptyl (oenanthyl)', had an empirical formula of , density of at and boiled between . In the next year he identified the same compound in the Pennsylvanian oil. By 1872 he switched his nomenclature to the modern one.