17.1 To 17.4 Organic Chemistry Notes
17.1 To 17.4 Organic Chemistry Notes
17.1 To 17.4 Organic Chemistry Notes
The remains of dead organisms that fell to the ocean floor and were buried under thick sediment got
slowly converted them to petroleum over millions of years, due to high pressure.
Natural gas is mainly methane. It is often found with petroleum. It is formed in the same way. But high
temperature and high pressures caused the compounds to break down to gas.
Coal is the remains of lush vegetation that grew in ancient swamps. The dead vegetation was buried
under thick sediment. Pressure and heat slowly converted it to coal, over millions of years.
Petroleum:-
Petroleum is a smelly mixture of hundreds of different compounds. They are organic compounds,
which means they contain carbon and usually hydrogen. They are mostly hydrocarbons, which means
they contain only carbon and hydrogen.
Refining:-
Petroleum contains hundreds of different hydrocarbons. But a big mixture like this is not very useful.
So the first step is to separate the compounds into groups with molecules of a similar size. This is called
refining the petroleum. It is carried out by fractional distillation.
Petroleum Refinery:-
In a refinery, the fractional distillation is carried out in a tower that is kept very hot at the base, and
cooler towards the top.
As the molecules get larger, the fractions get less runny or more viscous. From gas at the top of the
tower to solid at the bottom. They also get less flammable so the last two fractions in the table are
not used as fuel.
Cracking hydrocarbons:-
After fractional distillation, the fractions need further treatment before they can be used.
They contain impurities – mainly sulfur compounds. If left in the fuels, these will burn to form
harmful sulfur dioxide gas
Some fractions are separated further into single compounds or smaller groups of compounds.
For example, the gas fraction is separated into methane, ethane, propane, and butane
Part of a fraction may be cracked. Cracking breaks molecules down into smaller ones.
This experiment is carried out using a hydrocarbon oil from petroleum. The product is a gas,
collected over water in the inverted test-tube
The moment heating is stopped, the delivery tube must be lifted out of the water. Otherwise
water will get sucked up into the hot test-tube
Examples of cracking
1. Cracking the naphtha fraction: Compounds in the naphtha fraction are often cracked, since
this fraction is used as the feedstock for making many useful chemicals. This is the kind of
reaction that occurs:
2. Cracking ethane: Ethane has very short molecules – but even it can be cracked, to give ethene
and hydrogen
Functional groups:-
A functional group is the part of a molecule that largely dictates how the molecule will react.
For example, all the alkenes have similar reactions because they all have the same functional group,
the C = C bond.
Homologous series:-
In a homologous series,