Organic Chemistry Flashcards
Organic chemistry
The chemistry of compounds which contain carbon 
What can carbon form which gives rise to large number of carbon/organic compounds
Four Covalent bones.
Carbon based compound
Fossil fuels and all living things contain organic compounds
Hydrocarbon
A compound (or molecule) consisting of hydrogen and carbon only

Name one major source of organic chemicals
Crude oil
Chemicals obtained from crude oil
Hydrocarbons
Finite resource
It will run out
What does fractional distillation do to crude oil?
- Separates it into small mixtures of hydrocarbons called fractions
-fractional distillation separates on the basis of boiling points
What increases down the products of fractional distillation?
- Boiling points
- number of carbon atoms
- size of hydrocarbons
Products of fraction distillation
- Refinery gases
- Petrol
- Naphtha
- kerosene
- diesel
- fuel oils
- bitumen
Cracking
The breakdown of larger/longer (less useful) saturated hydrocarbon molecules (alkanes) into smaller/shorter (more useful) ones, some of which are unsaturated (alkenes)

Why is cracking used?
The larger hydrocarbons are not as useful as the smaller ones, so they are broken down by cracking
Equation for cracking
- Involves an alkane moving from the left side
- a smaller alkane and alkene on the right side
- Number of carbons and hydrogen must be balanced on each side of the equation
- You may be asked to determine/name the alkene product
Homologous series
A family of organic compounds that:
- Half the same general formula
- successive members differ by a ‘CH2’ unit
- show similar chemical properties
- show a gradation in their physical properties
e.g boiling point increases with the number of carbon atoms
Functional group
A reactive group in a molecule
- dictates the chemistry of the series
- gives members similar chemical properties
