What are the shorter alkane chain compounds used for?
What are the shorter alkane chain compounds used for?
The shorter chain hydrocarbons condense in the trays nearer to the top of the tower, where it is cooler, because they have lower boiling points. Some of the products produced are alkenes. These can be converted to other compounds very easily and are therefore very useful.
Why are short chain alkanes more useful?
In general, shorter chain hydrocarbons are more useful than longer chains. The majority of the use we get out of crude oil is as fuel. As shorter chain molecules are more flammable (and burn with a cleaner flame) these are in higher demand. As a result, the smaller fractions are in high demand.
What are short chain alkenes used for?
The small alkanes can be used as fuel (such as pentane) whilst the alkenes (such as ethene), can be used to make plastics and many other useful chemicals. The length of the hydrocarbon chain determines its properties.
How does the length of alkanes affect their properties?
The alkanes are a homologous series of hydrocarbons . This means that they have similar chemical properties to each other and they have trends in physical properties. For example, as the chain length increases, their boiling point increases.
What do the properties of alkanes depend on?
Solid alkanes are normally soft, with low melting points. These characteristics are due to strong repulsive forces generated between electrons on neighboring atoms, which are in close proximity in crystalline solids. The strong repulsive forces counterbalance the weak van der Waals forces of attraction.
What are alkanes phases?
Under standard conditions, from CH4 to C4H10 alkanes are gaseous; from C5H12 to C17H36 they are liquids; and after C18H38 they are solids.
What elements make up a ring?
A very common ring structure contains six carbon atoms in a ring, each bonded in a tetrahedral arrangement, as in the hydrocarbon cyclohexane, C6H12. Such ring structures are often very simply represented as regular polygons in which each apex represents a carbon atom, and the hydrogen atoms that…
What are the rings around an atom called?
The rings, also known as electron shells, can hold a variable amount of electrons depending on its shell number. For example, the first shell can hold only two electrons. If the atom has more than two electrons, then that atom must have more than one ring.
What is a diamond made of chemically?
Diamond is composed of the single element carbon, and it is the arrangement of the C atoms in the lattice that give diamond its amazing properties. Compare the structure of diamond and graphite, both composed of just carbon.