12.Alkanes Flashcards
What are alkanes
Saturated hydrocarbons
What are saturated hydrocarbons
A compound containing only H and C with only C-C and C-H bonds, no C=C
Describe the physical properties of alkanes: polarity
- non polar
- as electronegativity between C and H are so similar
What are the intermolecular forces that act between alkanes
only van der Waals
Describe the physical properties of alkanes: boiling points
- as chain length increases
- so does van der Waal forces strength
- as more electrons present
- so boiling point increases
Why do alkanes with branched chains have lower melting points than straight chain alkanes with the same number of carbon atoms
- cannot pack together as closely
- less interaction of van der Waal forces
- weaker van der Wall forces
- lower boiling point
Describe the physical properties of alkanes: solubility
- insoluble in water
- water is held by much stronger hydrogen bonds than the van der Waals
- lipid soluble
How do alkanes react
- strong H-C bonds so relatively unreactive
- react with halogens
- burn in oxygen
What is crude oil made of
Branched and unbranched alkanes and impurities
How are alkanes in crude oil separated
Fractional distillation in a fractionating tower
Describe the process of fractional distillation
- crude oil heated in furnace
- mixture of liquid and vapour passes into a tower that is cooler at the top than at the bottom
- vapour pass up tower via a series of trays containing bubble caps until they arrive at a tray that is sufficiently cool and condense
- shorter chains condense in towers near the top (lower boiling points)
- thick residue collects at base called tar
What is cracking
The breaking of C-C bonds in a long hydrocarbon chain to make shorter chains
What is useful about cracking
- produces shorter, more useful chains (especially petrol)
- some of the products are alkenes which are more reactive than alkanes
What does cracking produces
- shorter alkanes
- high % of alkenes
What are the two types of cracking
- thermal
- catalytic