Organic chemistry Flashcards
What is meant by crude oil?
A finite resource found in rocks made up of a mixture of hydrocarbons.
This is why we can separate it via fractional distillation.
What is crude oil made from?
The remains of ancient biomass consisting of mainly plankton, compressed and buried in mud over a period of millions of years.
True or false, crude oil is a fossil fuel?
True.
What molecule does crude oil mainly consist of?
Hydrocarbons.
What is meant by a hydrocarbon?
A molecule consisting of only hydrogen and carbon atoms.
What is meant by ‘alkanes’?
What is the general formula for alkanes?
A homologous series of saturated hydrocarbons consisting of only single C-C covalent bonds.
CnH2n+2
What is meant by a homologous series?
A sequence of compounds with the same functional group and similar chemical properties.
A functional group = a group of atoms in a molecule that are responsible for how that molecule reacts.
What are the first 4 alkanes?
- Methane (CH4)
- Ethane (C2H6)
- Propane (C3H8)
- Butane (C4H10)
^^These are all gases at room temp. because they have boiling points lower than room temp.
Why are alkanes considered saturated?
Because they consist of only single covalent bonds where the C atoms are fully bonded to the H atoms.
Describe the properties of hydrocarbons in terms of:
- Boiling point (the temp a liquid turns into a gas)
- Viscosity (the thickness of a fluid and how easily it flows)
- Flammability (how easily a molecule combusts)
And how this relates to their size.
VISCOSITY: As the size of the HC molecule chain length increases, the viscosity increases.
FLAMMABILITY: As the size of the HC molecule chain length increases the flammability decreases.
BOILING POINT: As the size of the HC molecule chain length increases the boiling point increases (more and stronger IMFA so more energy is required to break the bonds).
During the combustion of Hydrocarbons what is released?
Energy.
The combustion of HC releases energy so HC can be used as fuels.
During the combustion of HC Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms react with oxygen in the air to become oxidised.
Complete combustion:
- Define
- What are the products?
An exothermic reaction that occurs when there is an unlimited supply of oxygen.
During complete combustion Carbon dioxide + Water are produced.
Under what conditions does Incomplete combustion occur?
When there is a limited supply of oxygen in the air.
General equation for complete combustion of an alkane:
Hydrocarbon + O2 -> Carbon Dioxide + Water
^^The products of complete combustion are always CO2 and H2O
*You should be able to balance equations of complete and incomplete combustion.
What are always the products of incomplete combustion?
Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Water
OR
Carbon (C) aka Soot and Water
Hydrocarbon + Oxygen -> CO/C + H2O
Explain why incomplete combustion is dangerous:
Incomplete combustion produces CO, CO is a toxic gas that is.
- Odourless
- Colourless
- Poisonous
- Tasteless
It binds to haemoglobin on RBC reducing the oxygen transfer around the body.
What does fractional distillation of crude oil involve?
- Separating hydrocarbons in crude oil into fractions that each contain molecules with a similar number of carbon atoms.
- This allows for HC of different chain lengths to become useful.
Describe the process of fractional distillation of crude oil:
- Crude oil is heated to vaporise and fed into the fractionating column where the temperature is hotter towards the bottom of the fractionating column and cooler towards the top.
- The crude oil vapour rises rapidly and HC of different chain lengths condense at their boiling points.
- Longer HC chain lengths condense towards the bottom of the FC there it is hotter and shorter HC chain lengths remain gases or condense towards the top of the FC where it is cooler.
- At each boiling point temp. a fraction is produced containing HC of similar chain lengths.
- Fractional distillation occurs as a continuous process.
What are fractions produced from fractional distillation used for?
The fractions can be processed to produce fuels and feedstock for the petrochemical industry.
What is meant by feedstock?
A raw material used to provide reactants for an industrial reaction.
What are the 5 fuels produced from fractional distillation?
- Petrol
- Diesel oil
- Kerosene
- Heavy fuel oil
- Liquified petroleum gases (LPG) (V short chain HC eg propane and butane)
What useful materials are produced in every day life from the fractions by the petrochemical industry?
- Solvents
- Lubricants
- Detergents
- Polymers
True or false, long chain hydrocarbons are not useful as fuels as they aren’t flammable, and due to the high demand of shorter chain HC there aren’t enough so we have to break the longer ones down?
True, this is called cracking.
Cracking:
The breaking down of longer chain hydrocarbon molecules to produce smaller and more useful molecules.
^The longer ones are broken down bc they aren’t as useful, and now the shorter ones can be used as fuels.
What are the products of cracking?
- Shorter chain alkanes
- Alkenes
What are the two types of cracking?
- Steam cracking
- Catalytic cracking
Why are alkenes produced by cracking useful?
They can be used as:
- Polymers
- Starting materials for other useful chemicals
What occurs during steam cracking?
CONDITIONS:
- High temperature
- Steam
The longer HC chains are mixed with steam and heated to high temperatures to allow thermal decomposition to occur for them to be broken down into smaller and more useful alkanes and alkenes.
What occurs during catalytic cracking?
CONDITIONS
- High temperature
- Catalyst
The longer hydrocarbon chains are passed over a hot catalyst and thermal decomposition occurs. The catalyst speeds up the rate of this reaction.
True or false, alkenes are more reactive than alkanes?
True. (Bc they are unsaturated and have a double C-C covalent bond)
This is why we can test for alkenes using the bromine water test.
Describe the test for alkenes:
- Bromine water test.
- If alkenes are present, orange bromine water is decolourised.
DON’T SAY CLEAR!
Balancing cracking equations:
What are alkenes?
A homologous series of unsaturated hydrocarbons consisting of double C=C covalent bonds.
State why alkenes are unsaturated
They have 2 fewer hydrogen atoms than the alkane with the same number of carbon atoms.
What is the functional group for alkenes?
C=C
What is the general formula for alkenes?
CnH2n
Why are alkenes not used as fuels?
- The don’t burn cleanly with oxygen - they produce smokey flames.
- A lot of energy is required to break their double C=C covalent bond.
- So combustion of alkenes is incomplete which produced C or CO
- This is dangerous (CO binds to haemoglobin in RBC preventing transfer of O2 around the body).
Alkenes we need to know for GCSE:
- Ethene (C2H4)
- Propene (C3H6)
- Butene (C4H8)
- Pentene (C5H10)
Draw the 4 Alkenes (Ethene - Pentene)