Alkanes and Halogenalkanes Flashcards
What is the general formula of alkanes?
Alkanes have the general formula of CnH2n+2
What are hydrocarbons?
Hydrocarbons are only made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms
Why are alkanes considered saturated?
Every carbon atom makes four single bonds, so there are only single bonds in the molecule.
What are cycloalkanes?
They are a ring of carbon atoms with two hydrogen atoms bonded to each carbon. They are still saturated.
What is the general formula of cycloalkanes?
CnH2n
What is petroleum/crude oil?
It is a mixture of hydrocarbons- found as the sticky black stuff they get out of the ground with oil wells. It is mostly made up of Alkanes. They range from small alkanes, like pentane, to massive alkanes of more than 50 carbons.
What is the process used to separate crude oil?
Fractional distillation
How does the fractional distillation of crude oil work?
1) The crude oil is vaporized at about 350 degrees C
2) The vaporized crude oil goes into a fractionating column and rises up through the trays. Longer chain alkanes don’t vaporize and remain at the bottom as a gooey residue.
3)As the crude oil vapour goes up it gets cooler and different chain-length alkanes condense to a liquid at various levels starting from longest-shortest.
4) The hydrocarbons with the lowest boiling point don’t condense. They are drawn off as gases at the top of the column.
What are the uses and number of carbons in the gases fraction?
1-4 carbons
Liquified petroleum gas (LPG), camping gas
What are the uses and number of carbons in the Naphtha fraction?
7-14
processed to make petrochemicals
What are the uses and number of carbons in the petrol fraction?
5-12
petrol
What are the uses and number of carbons in the kerosene (paraffin) fraction?
11-15
Jet fuel, petrochemicals, central heating fuel
What are the uses and number of carbons in the Gas oil (diesel) fraction?
15-19
diesel fuel, central heating fuel
What are the uses and number of carbons in the Mineral oil (lubricating) fraction?
20-30
Lubricating oil
What are the uses and number of carbons in the Residue (fuel oil, wax, grease, bitumen) fraction?
30-40 Ships, power stations
40-50 Candles, Lubrication
50+ Roofing, Road surfacing
Why is cracking of alkanes needed?
There is a large demand for shorter-chain alkanes like petrol and naphtha, but there isn’t enough naturally produced. There is also a low demand for longer-chain alkanes like bitumen and a large store so this excess can be tuned into smaller-chain alkanes to fill the need via cracking.
What is cracking?
Cracking is breaking bonds in long-chain alkanes into smaller hydrocarbons. You get a different combination each time you crack alkanes.
What is Thermal cracking?
- takes place at high temperatures of up to 1000 degrees
- takes place at high pressure of 70 atm
- produces a lot of alkenes
- alkenes produced are used to make heaps of valuable products, like polymers. A good example of poly(ethene) which is made from ethene.