Investigation 8

Chemistry Internal Assessment

Relationship between enthalpy of

combustion and number of carbons in
simple alcohols belonging to the same
homologous series
Word count excluding bibliography, charts and graphs: 1126

1. The research question

Alcohols are used as fuels for different applications ranging from cooking to powering cars. They
have become increasingly important as components of biofuels. Even when ethanol is the only
industrially relevant alcohol used in this sense, recent findings suggest that higher alcohols may
prove more efficient and less corrosive (1). The study refers to branched alcohols, but I will use
straight chain alcohols to simplify the analysis. This investigation would provide a preliminary step
for later studies. It looks to establish a connection between the energy released when they
combust and their structure. I will specifically focus on the impact that the number of carbon
atoms in the chain of a homologous series of alcohols has on the enthalpy change of combustion.

2. My hypothesis

The first component of my hypothesis is that as the numbers of carbon atoms increases so will the
enthalpy of combustion. Enthalpy changes result from the difference in the amount of energy
required for breaking bonds and the amount released when new bonds are formed. If the bonds
formed are stronger than those broken the energy released will be larger than the energy invested
and this energy will flow to the environment.

When alcohols react with oxygen in air they form carbon dioxide and water. The bonds between C
and O are double and therefore stronger than those between carbons which are simple. The more
carbons the alcohol has the more C=O bonds will be formed-actually for each C two of such bonds
are formed- and this leads me to say that the enthalpy change should be directly increasing.

The second aspect of this investigation is also focused on bond aspects and addresses the
differences existing between enthalpy changes experimentally determined and those calculated
with Bond energies. These last values are average values over several compounds with similar
structure. In the case of alcohols the amount of energy needed to break the bond between C-O
when the C is only bonded to Hydrogens-the case of methanol- should be different than when it is
bonded to other carbons.

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 Investigation 8

The second component of my hypothesis is that the value will be much lower in the case of
methanol as the methyl group has a larger inductive effect than other alkyl groups (2). I also think
that the difference between the others will be minimal because the C bonded with the O will be
bonded to one more C whose electronegativity is the same-therefore no inductive effect- and just
two H providing some inductive effect.

3. Finding the enthalpy changes using bond energies

In order to validate my hypothesis I will be using values of bond energies obtained from a
database instead of practicing the actual experiment. The school only has three alcohols and one
of them is branched, therefore it would not be possible to establish a trend. For this purpose I will
use the RSC data bank and spreadsheets.

The following are the balanced chemical equations:

CH3OH(l) + 1. 5 O2 (g) → CO2 (g) +2 H2O (l)

C2H5 OH (l) + 3 O2 (g) → 2 CO2 (g) + 3 H2O (l)

C3H7OH (l) + 4.5 O2 (g) → 3 CO2 (g) + 4 H2O (l)

C4H9OH (l) + 6 O2 (g) → 4 CO2 (g) + 5 H2O (l)

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 Investigation 8

Table 1. Spreadsheet used for calculating Enthalpy changes of combustion based on BE*
Met hanol Bond energy (k J/ mol) Overall energy (kJ/mol) Overall energy (kJ/mol) ChangeHcombustion (kJ/mol)
H- O 464 464 1856
average C- C 347 0 0
average C- H 413 1239 0
average C- O 358 358 0
C=O in CO2 805 0 1610
O=O 4 9 8 .3 748 0

bonds brok en
and
f ormed(k j/mol) 2809 3466 -657

Et hanol Bond energy (k J/ mol) Overall energy(kJ/mol) Overall energy (kJ/mol) ChangeHcombustion (kJ/mol)
H- O 464 464 2784
average C- C 347 347 0
average C- H 413 2065 0
average C- O 358 358 0
C=O in CO2 805 0 3220
O=O 498 1494 0

bonds brok en
and
f ormed(k j/mol) 4728 6004 -1276

Propan- 1 - ol Bond energy (k J/ mol) Overall energy(kJ/mol) Overall energy (kJ/mol) ChangeHcombustion (kJ/mol)
H- O 464 464 3712
average C- C 347 694 0
average C- H 413 2891 0
average C- O 358 358 0
C=O in CO2 805 0 4830
O=O 498 2241 0

bonds brok en
and
f ormed(k j/mol) 6648 8542 -1894

But an- 1 - ol Bond energy (k J/ mol) Overall energy (kJ/mol) Overall energy (kJ/mol) ChangeHcombustion (kJ/mol)
H- O 464 464 4640
average C- C 347 1041 0
average C- H 413 3717 0
average C- O 358 358 0
C=O in CO2 805 0 6440
O=O 498 2988 0

bonds brok en
and
f ormed(k j/mol) 8568 11080 -2512

Pent an- 1 - ol Bond energy (k J/ mol) Overall energy(kJ/mol) Overall energy (kJ/mol) ChangeHcombustion (kJ/mol)
H- O 464 464 5568
average C- C 347 1388 0
average C- H 413 4543 0
average C- O 358 358 0
C=O in CO2 805 0 8050
O=O 498 3735 0

bonds brok en
and
f ormed(k j/mol) 10488 13618 -3130

*The bond energies (BE) were obtained from the RSC database and exported to a
spreadsheet to make the calculations (3)

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 Investigation 8

4. Comparing experimental theoretical values with those calculated using bond energies

The bond energies are average values obtained from several similar compounds. As a difference to
the theoretical experimental values , they do not specifically consider variations resulting from
changes in the chemical environment surrounding specific bonds.

Table 2. Comparing theoretical experimental values with values calculated using BE

Alcohol Exp values (kJ/mol) Using BE (kJ/mol) % Difference

Methanol -726 -667 8.85
Ethanol -1300 -1276 1.88
Propa-1-ol -2020 -1894 6.65
Butan-1-ol -2670* -2512 6.29
Pentan-1-ol -3329** -3130 6.36
*Reference (4) **Reference (5)

Graph 1. Heat of combustion released per mol in terms of number of Catoms in the chain

Using BE (kJ/mol)
3500

3000
ΔH of combustion (kJ mol -1)

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0 Number of C atoms in the chain

0 2 4 6

Graph 2. Heat of combustion released per mol in terms of number of Catoms in the chain

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 Investigation 8

Using exp theoretical values (kJ/mol)

4500
Heat of combustion released per mol

4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Number of Catoms in the chain

5. Analysis

Both the theoretical experimental results and those resulting from calculations based on BE
showing a positive linear relationship which validates my hypothesis.

All the values resulting from using bond energies (BE) are lower than the experimental ones found
in references. It is worth mentioning that the RSC Database provides the H-O value corresponding
to water which should be different from that in a hydroxyl as the chemical widely varies.

It is interesting that the experimental value of ethanol -while still on the line- appears as lower
than the other experimental values. This is not observed in the values based on BE where the five
energy values are perfectly aligned. Ethanol´s value is clearly lower than that of methanol and
slightly lower than the other higher alcohols.

Therefore there seems to be some structural difference between ethanol and the rest, with a
more marked variation with the first member of the homologous series. I tend to believe that this
may result from the significantly lower inductive effect that the ethyl group has on the C-O bond
when compared with the methyl group. If the inductive effect is lower the bond is less polar,
resulting in an increased covalent character and therefore a stronger bond. As the bond is
stronger more energy is needed to break it, and the enthalpy change would therefore be smaller.
The inductive effect is not changed by adding CH2 in the higher alcohols but still there must be
some, as they are slightly lower than methanol (but perfectly aligned with each other). Still other
possibility is that differences result from experimental errors which references do not report.
Results may suggest that the difference in the bond O-H could be affecting alcohols to a different
degree. More data are needed to clarify why the second CH2 affects the C-O bond in ethanol but
not in the rest providing a satisfactory explanation for this anomaly.

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 Investigation 8

Values established for BE correspond to gaseous states of the reactants and products. The
experimental values though address liquid states for the alcohols and water. Thus, the previous
analysis is limited as it has not taken into account the heat of condensation.

6. Final reflections

I may finally conclude that my hypothesis has been validated both by experimental values found in
cited resources and those calculated using bond energies. The investigation has evidenced that
there is a positive linear relationship between the ΔH of combustion and the number of C atoms in
a homologous series of simple alcohols. It has also shown that results based on bond energies are
lower than those experimentally obtained underlining the relevance of chemical environments in
the energy needed to break specific bonds even when extremely similar. An unexpected small
anomaly was found in the experimental value of ethanol which is not shown in the trend based on
bond energies, reinforcing the limitations that average values may impose on accurate
descriptions.

7. Bibliography

(1) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7174/abs/nature06450.html Accessed

February 2012
(2) http://www.transtutors.com/chemistry-homework-help/general-organic-
chemistry/inductive-effect.aspx Accessed February 2012
(3) http://www.rsc.org/education/teachers/resources/databook/ Accessed February 2012
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_combustion Accessed February 2012
(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Butanol Accessed February 2012
(6) http://www.docbrown.info/page07/delta1Hd.htm Accessed February 2012

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