Tertiary carbon
A tertiary carbon atom is a carbon atom bound to three other carbon atoms. For this reason, tertiary carbon atoms are found only in hydrocarbons containing at least four carbon atoms. Tertiary carbon atoms can occur, for example, in branched alkanes, but not in linear alkanes.
| primary carbon | secondary carbon | tertiary carbon | quaternary carbon | |
| General structure | ||||
| Partial Structural formula |