Organic Chemistry Flashcards
What is organic chemistry?
The chemistry of CARBON ATOMS
Carbon forms a vast umber of compounds because it can form strong covalent bonds with itself
What is a functional group?
A specific atom or group of atoms which confer certain physical and chemical properties onto the molecule
What is a homologous series?
Organic compounds with the same functional group but a different number of carbon atoms are said to belong to the same HOMOLOGOUS SERIES.
Each member has the same functional group
Each member has the same general formula
Each member has similar chemical properties
As the homologous series is ascended, the size of the molecule increases, which has an effect on physical properties, such as boiling point and density
What is the general formula of alkenes?
CnH2n
What is the displayed formula?
Shows the spatial arrangement of all the atoms and bonds in a molecule
What is the molecular formula?
Shows the actual number of each atom in a molecule, one molecule at a time
What is crude oil?
A finite resource which we find in the Earth’s crust, which is a mixture of hydrocarbons which also contain natural gas.
It is a thick, sticky, black liquid that is found in porous rick which was formed over millions of years ago from the effects of high pressures and temperatures on the remains of plants and animals
What is an alkane?
A group of saturated hydrocarbons.
General formula is CnH2n+2
Colourless compounds which have a gradual change in their physical properties as the number of carbon atoms in the chain increases.
Generally uncreative compounds but they undergo combustion reactions and can be cracked into smaller molecules as well as reacting with halogens in the presence of light
What does saturated mean?
Containing the greatest number of hydrogen atoms.
They only have single carbon-carbon bonds and there are no double bonds
Why is crude oil so useful?
Crude oil itself is NOT useful, but the different hydrocarbons that make up the mixture, called fractions are EXTREMELY VALUABLE, with each fraction having many different applications.
Each fraction consists of groups of hydrocarbons of SIMILAR CHAIN LENGTHS.
These fractions in petroleum can be separated in FRACTIONAL DISTILLATION.
The size and length of these fractions determine which fraction they will be separated into.
Most fractions contain MANY ALKENES
What is fractional distillation?
A separation technique used to separate in this example CRUDE OIL in a fractionating column, which is very hot at the bottom and cool at the top
Crude oil enters the fractionating column and is heated so vapour rises
Vapours of hydrocarbons with very high boiling points immediately condense into liquid at the higher temperatures lower down and are tapped off at the bottom of the column
The fractions containing SMALLER hydrocarbons are collected at the TOP of the fractionating column as gases
The fractions containing BIGGER hydrocarbons are collected at the lower sections of the fractionating column
What are petrochemicals?
Chemicals obtained from the process of fractional distillation of petroleum
What can petrochemicals be useful for?
- Useful in most transport lines
- Liquidified petroleum gas (domestic heating and cooking)
- Petrol (Fuel for cars)
- Kerosene (Jet fuel (paraffin))
- Diesel (Diesel engines (gas oil))
- Heavy fuel oil (Ships and power stations)
- Bitumen (Surfacing roads and roofs)
What do the properties of hydrocarbons depend on?
The size of the molecule, (how many carbons there are)
Functional group
What happens to the properties of hydrocarbons as their sizes increase and why?
Boiling point increases due to the molecules getting larger so there are more intermolecular forces of attraction between the molecules so more energy is required to break these forces and separate the molecules
Viscosity also increases with chain length.
As hydrocarbons increase in size, flammability DECREASES.
What is viscosity?
Refers to the FLOW of a liquid
High viscosity liquids are THICK and flow less easily
Low viscosity means the liquid is RUNNY
What is complete combustion?
When WATER and CARBON DIOXIDE are formed at the end of a reaction
What is the equation for the combustion of methane?
CH4 + 2O2 –> CO2 + 2H2O
Why are alkenes unsaturated compounds?
Because they have double C–C bonds, meaning that there is not the maximum amount of hydrogen atoms present
What is cracking?
A process whereby long-chain hydrocarbons are broken down and CRACKED to produce smaller chain hydrocarbons
What are the 2 methods for cracking?
Catalytic cracking and steam cracking
What is catalytic cracking?
Involves heating the hydrocarbon molecules to around 470-550°C to vaporise them
Then the vapours pass over a hot powdered catalyst of aluminium oxide
This process breaks covalent bonds in the molecules as the come into contact with the surface of the catalyst causing THERMAL DECOMPOSITION where the molecules are broken up in random ways to produce mixtures of SMALLER alkanes and alkenes
What is steam cracking?
Involves using slightly higher temperatures than Catalytic cracking, and produces more ring structures and UNSATURATED COMPOUNDS
The vaporised hydrocarbons are mixed with STEAM and heated to a high temperature which induces cracking and forms the smaller alkanes and alkenes
What happens when we write equations for cracking?
The C and H atoms must add to make the same number om both sides, eg.
C6H16 –> C4H10 + C2H4
What are alkenes?
A hydrocarbon compound with ATLEAST ONE double bond between two of the carbon atoms in the chain
The general formula of alkenes is CnH2n
They are MORE REACTIVE than ALKANES due to the presence of the C–C double bond, so they can take part in reactions in which alkanes cannot, so they are more useful and desired than alkanes
They can be used to make polymers and are the starting materials for the production of many other chemicals