organic chemistry

• what is crude oil?

  • a mixture of hydrocarbons
  • a finite source found in rocks and formed from dead plants / animals that have spent millions of years buried in mud
• what is crude oil processed for?

  to produce fuels and to provide stock chemicals used to manufacture polymers, solvents…
• what is complete combustion?

  an oxidation reaction that occurs when a fuel reacts with plenty of oxygen
• what is the equation for complete combustion?

  hydrocarbon + oxygen -> carbon dioxide
• as the length of hydrocarbon chains increase, what happens to the boiling point, viscosity, and flammability?

  • boiling point = increases
  • viscosity = increases
  • flammability = decreases
• what is fractional distillation?

  a process used to separate hydrocarbons in crude oil into fractions according to boiling points
• where do shorter hydrocarbons condense in fractional distillation?

  near the top of the column because they have lower boiling points
• where do longer hydrocarbons condense in fractional distillation?

  near the bottom of the column because they have higher boiling points
• what is the order crude oil condenses into from the bottom of the column to the top?

  • heavy fuel oil
  • diesel oil
  • kerosene
  • petrol
  • LPG
• what are alkanes?

  the simplest type of hydrocarbons, containing only single covalent bonds, saturated
• what is the general formula for the homologous series of alkanes?

  C2H2n+2
• what is cracking?

  breaks down long chain hydrocarbons into shorter, more useful ones
• what are alkenes used to make?

  polymers
• what is catalytic cracking?

  when hydrocarbon vapour is passed over a hot powered aluminium catalyst
• what is steam cracking?

  when hydrocarbon vapour is mixed with steam and heated to a very high temperature
• what are alkenes?

  unsaturated hydrocarbons that have a double cc bond, which makes them more reactive than alkanes
• what is the general formula for alkenes?

  CnH2n
• what is incomplete combustion?

  when a fuel burns in air but theres not enough oxygen to burn completely
• what is the incomplete combustion equation?

  alkene + oxygen -> carbon + carbon monoxide + carbon dioxide + water
• if you add an alkene to bromide water, what happens to the colour?

  changes from orange to colourless
• what are polymers?


  long molecules formed when lots of monomers join together
• what is addition polymerisation?

  when molecules with C=C bonds join together in addition reactions
• what are repeating units?

  the shortest repeating section of a polymer, containing the same atoms as the monomer because no other products are formed in an addition polymerisation
• how do you draw repeating units?

  1. draw alkene carbons and replace the double bond with a single bond
  2. add an extra single bond to each carbon atom
  3. add the other groups in the same way that they surrounded the double bond
  4. add brackets and ‘n’
• what are alcohols?


  a compound containing an -OH functional group
• what are the properties of alcohols?

  • flammable
  • soluble in water
  • reactive with sodium and produce hydrogen gas
  • oxidised by oxidising agents to form carboxylic acids
• what are two uses of alcohol?

  • industrial solvents
  • good fuels from short chains
• what is fermentation?


  a process where an enzyme in yeast is used to convert sugar solutions to aqueous solutions of ethanol
• what is the fermentation equation?

  sugar -> ethanol + carbon dioxide
• what are the optimum conditions for fermentation?

  • 37 degrees
  • slightly acidic solution
  • anaerobic conditions
• what are carboxylic acids?

  a compound containing a -COON functional group
• what are the properties of carboxylic acids

  • weak acids - dont fully ionise when dissolved in water
  • have a higher ph than strong acids at the same concentration
• what are esters?

  molecules formed when an alcohol reacts with a carboxylic acid
• what is the equation for esters?

  alcohol + carboxylic acids -> ester + water
• what are condensation polymers?

  polymers formed from monomers with two functional groups, a small molecule is lost for each new bond formed
• what are proteins?

  polymers of different amino acids, giving them different shapes and properties
• what is dna?

  • a large molecule made up of two polymer chains of nucleotide monomers
  • encodes genetic information that allows living organisms and viruses to develop and operate
• how many different types of nucleotide monomers are there?

  four
• what are sugars?


  small molecules containing carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen
• what is starch?


  used by living organisms to store energy