Crude oil and hydrocarbons

• what is crude oil?

  • mixture of compounds; a fossil fuel consisting of the remains of ancient biomass
  • finite resource - can’t be replaced as it is used up
• what is a hydrocarbon?


  compound made up exclusively of hydrogen and carbon atoms
• what are alkanes?

  • saturated hydrocarbons of a general formula
  • CnH2n+2 (where n is the number of carbon atoms in the molecule).
• what is a homologous series?

  series of compounds with same general formula, same functional groups and similar chemical properties