AS Chemistry

Organic Chemistry: alkanes

Following the new OCR syllabus
What Are Alkanes?
• Alkanes are saturated hydrocarbons
• They contain only Hydrogen(H) and
Oxygen(O) atoms joined by single
bonds
• They are fairly un-reactive except in
combustion reactions such as
methane gas to power Bunsen
burners in the lab
Sources Of Alkanes
• Alkanes are obtained mainly from
crude oil
• Crude oil is a mixture of thousands of
compounds
• They can be separated by a process
called ‘fractal distillation’
The first 5 alkanes
Carbon
Name Formula 3d
atoms

1 Methane CH4
The first four
alkane
C2H6 prefixes have
2 Ethane
historical
names, after
which Latin
3 Propane C3H8 ordinals are
used, these
will be
familiar from
4 Butane C4H10 maths i.e.
PENTagon,
HEXagon.
5 Pentane C5H12
Task 1
The sixth alkane is ‘Hexane’, it has the
formula C6H14.
Using the structures of the first
alkanes and the 3d model below,
work out its structure. Use simplified
notation

[5minutes]
Task 1

H H H H H H

H C C C C C C H

H H H H H H

Hexane
Alkanes as fuels
The Bunsen Flame- an exothermic
reaction

CH4 + O2  CO2 + H2O

+  +
Isomers
• Isomers are chemical substances
with the same molecular formula but
different structures
• Hydrocarbons like alkanes with 4 or
more carbon atoms form isomers
 • Lets take butane as an example, it
has the molecular formula C4H10.
H H H N-butane
H Straight chain
H C C
C C H Melting point: -138 Celsius
Boiling point: 0 Celsius
H
H H H

H
Iso-butane
H H
Branched hydrocarbon
C
Melting point: -159 Celsius
H C H Boiling point: 0 Celsius
C C
H H H
H H
Task 2
Draw the three possible isomers of
pentane

[20minutes]
Task 2
H H H H

H C C H
C C C
H H
H H H H

H
H H

H C H

H C C C H

H C H
H H
H

H
H H
C H
H
H C C
C C H
H H
H H H
How many isomers can be
formed? No. No.
Name Formula Carbon Isomers
atoms possible
Butane C4H10 4 2
Pentane C5H12 5 3
Hexane C6H14 6 5
Heptane C7H16 7 9
Octane C8H18 8 18
Nonane C9H20 9 35
Decane C10H22 10 75
Dodecane C12H26 12 355