ORGANIC CHEMISTRY DEFINITIONS

Question 1

What is addition polymerisation?

Answer 1

A reaction where many small molecules (monomers) join together to form very large molecules (polymers).

Question 2

What are alcohols?

Answer 2

Alcohols contain the functional group –OH. The first four members are methanol, ethanol, propanol, and butanol.

Question 3

What are alkanes?

Answer 3

Alkanes are the most common hydrocarbon found in crude oil with the general formula CnH2n+2.

Question 4

What are alkenes?

Answer 4

Alkenes are hydrocarbons with a double bond between two carbon atoms, making them unsaturated. They have the general formula CnH2n.

Question 5

What are amino acids?

Answer 5

Amino acids have two different functional groups in a molecule and react by condensation polymerisation to produce polypeptides.

Question 6

What are carboxylic acids?

Answer 6

Carboxylic acids have the functional group –COOH. The first four members are methanoic acid, ethanoic acid, propanoic acid, and butanoic acid.

Question 7

What is catalytic cracking?

Answer 7

Long-chain hydrocarbons are heated to turn them into a gas, which is then passed over a hot powdered aluminium oxide catalyst to split the molecules.

Question 8

What is combustion?

Answer 8

Combustion of hydrocarbon fuels releases energy by oxidising carbon and hydrogen in the fuels.

Question 9

What is complete combustion?

Answer 9

Water and carbon dioxide are the only products of the complete combustion of a hydrocarbon.

Question 10

What is crude oil?

Answer 10

A finite resource found in rocks, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons from ancient biomass, primarily plankton.

Question 11

What is DNA?

Answer 11

DNA encodes genetic instructions for living organisms and viruses, typically in the form of a double helix made from four different nucleotides.

Question 12

What are esters?

Answer 12

The product of a condensation reaction between a carboxylic acid and alcohol.

Example: ethanol + ethanoic acid → ethyl ethanoate.

Question 13

What is fermentation?

Answer 13

A chemical process by which glucose is broken down anaerobically, producing ethanol when sugar solutions are fermented using yeast.

Question 14

What is fractional distillation?

Answer 14

A method of separating a mixture of substances according to their different boiling points, commonly used to separate crude oil.

Question 15

What is a homologous series?

Answer 15

A series of compounds with the same functional group and similar chemical properties.

Question 16

What are hydrocarbons?

Answer 16

Molecules made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms only.

Question 17

What are nucleotides?

Answer 17

The monomers which make up DNA.

Question 18

What are polyesters?

Answer 18

A category of polymers containing the ester functional group in their main chain, formed from condensation polymerisation.

Question 19

What are polymers?

Answer 19

Large long-chain molecules made up of lots of small monomers joined together by covalent bonds.

Question 20

What is a polypeptide?

Answer 20

A chain of amino acids.

Question 21

What is a repeat unit?

Answer 21

The part of a polymer whose repetition would produce the complete polymer chain.

Question 22

What is steam cracking?

Answer 22

Long-chain hydrocarbons are heated and mixed with steam at high temperatures to split them into smaller molecules.

Question 23

What is condensation polymerisation?

Answer 23

Reactions involving monomers with two functional groups that join together and lose small molecules such as water.

Question 24

What is cracking?

Answer 24

A process that breaks down larger hydrocarbons to produce smaller, more useful molecules, done by catalytic or steam cracking.