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In this section we look at these important chemicals in detail. You'll find out about their names, their structures and their chemical reactions. You need to have looked at the Revision Bite on Fractional Distillation before revising this one. There you will learn about how we separate crude oil into other chemicals, the hydrocarbons.
Hydrocarbons (General)
Hydrocarbonshydrocarbons: Hydrocarbons are a group of compounds which contain the elements hydrogen and carbon. are:
- compounds that contain only carbon atoms and hydrogen atoms
- obtained from crude oil by fractional distillation and can be classified into different groups. The three groups that you need to know about for Standard Grade are called alkanes,alkenes and cycloalkanes.
Remember
Make sure in an exam that you write these words clearly so that the examiner is certain about which group you are referring to.
Family of Hydrocarbons
The hydrocarbon family can be summarised as follows.
| Name | General formula | Characteristic feature |
|---|---|---|
| Alkanes | CnH2n+2 | Single (covalent) bonds |
| Alkenes | CnH2n | C=C, i.e., double (covalent) bond. |
| Cycloalkanes | CnH2n | Carbon ring of single (covalent) bonds |
Naming Hydrocarbons
All hydrocarbons have a common type of naming (called nomenclature).
Hydrocarbons with different numbers of carbon atoms have the following “prefixes”:
| Number | Prefix |
|---|---|
| 1 | Meth- |
| 2 | Eth- |
| 3 | Prop- |
| 4 | But- |
| 5 | Pent- |
| 6 | Hex- |
| 7 | Hept- |
| 8 | Oct- |
You must be able to name the first 8 hydrocarbons in the alkane subset.
Alkanes are named by using the prefixes shown and adding the suffix “-ane”. All alkanes have an “-ane” ending.
All alkenes end in “-ene.” You must be able to list the names of the first 6 alkenes.
Cycloalkanes are named by using the prefix “cyclo-” in front of the corresponding alkane. You must be able to name the first 6 cycloalkanes.
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