ORGANIC CHEMISTRY DEFINITIONS Flashcards
What is addition polymerisation?
A reaction where many small molecules (monomers) join together to form very large molecules (polymers).
What are alcohols?
Alcohols contain the functional group –OH. The first four members are methanol, ethanol, propanol, and butanol.
What are alkanes?
Alkanes are the most common hydrocarbon found in crude oil with the general formula CnH2n+2.
What are alkenes?
Alkenes are hydrocarbons with a double bond between two carbon atoms, making them unsaturated. They have the general formula CnH2n.
What are amino acids?
Amino acids have two different functional groups in a molecule and react by condensation polymerisation to produce polypeptides.
What are carboxylic acids?
Carboxylic acids have the functional group –COOH. The first four members are methanoic acid, ethanoic acid, propanoic acid, and butanoic acid.
What is catalytic cracking?
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.
What is combustion?
Combustion of hydrocarbon fuels releases energy by oxidising carbon and hydrogen in the fuels.
What is complete combustion?
Water and carbon dioxide are the only products of the complete combustion of a hydrocarbon.
What is crude oil?
A finite resource found in rocks, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons from ancient biomass, primarily plankton.
What is DNA?
DNA encodes genetic instructions for living organisms and viruses, typically in the form of a double helix made from four different nucleotides.
What are esters?
The product of a condensation reaction between a carboxylic acid and alcohol.
Example: ethanol + ethanoic acid → ethyl ethanoate.
What is fermentation?
A chemical process by which glucose is broken down anaerobically, producing ethanol when sugar solutions are fermented using yeast.
What is fractional distillation?
A method of separating a mixture of substances according to their different boiling points, commonly used to separate crude oil.
What is a homologous series?
A series of compounds with the same functional group and similar chemical properties.
What are hydrocarbons?
Molecules made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms only.
What are nucleotides?
The monomers which make up DNA.
What are polyesters?
A category of polymers containing the ester functional group in their main chain, formed from condensation polymerisation.
What are polymers?
Large long-chain molecules made up of lots of small monomers joined together by covalent bonds.
What is a polypeptide?
A chain of amino acids.
What is a repeat unit?
The part of a polymer whose repetition would produce the complete polymer chain.
What is steam cracking?
Long-chain hydrocarbons are heated and mixed with steam at high temperatures to split them into smaller molecules.
What is condensation polymerisation?
Reactions involving monomers with two functional groups that join together and lose small molecules such as water.
What is cracking?
A process that breaks down larger hydrocarbons to produce smaller, more useful molecules, done by catalytic or steam cracking.
