Identification

• According to a 1972 "Chemistry and Technology of Fuels and Oils" article, mineral oil, or liquid paraffin, consists of a mixture of alkanes. This term refers to a subgroup of hydrocarbons. Alkanes consist solely of single-bonded carbon and hydrogen atoms. Some alkanes in liquid paraffin have a straight chain shape; others have more than one branch in their molecular structure, making them isoalkanes.
  
  

Function

• Liquid paraffin burns easily and serves as a lamp oil, the Artists Resource for Fire website states. Drugstores sell mineral oil over the counter as a laxative; the same variety makes a good medium for preparing samples in infrared spectroscopy, according to 2004 articles in the "Internet Journal of Vibrational Spectroscopy."
  
  

Molecular Size Effects

• The alkanes' large molecular size makes liquid paraffin less volatile than other alkane mixtures such as gasoline, according to a Brigham Young University website information on vapor-liquid equilibria. Therefore, paraffin oil has little odor because the particles do not evaporate easily.