1 Chapter 4 : Carbon and its compounds

1. What would be the electron dot structure of carbon dioxide which has the formula CO 2?

2. What would be the electron dot structure of a molecule of sulphur which is made up of eight
atoms of sulphur?

Most common form of inorganic sulphur is octasulphur and its chemical formula is S8.
Lewis dot structure of S8 molecule is drawn below

3. What are the two properties of carbon which lead to the huge number of carbon compounds
we see around us?

The two properties of carbon which lead to the huge number of carbon compounds we see around us

I. Carbon has four electrons in the valance shell and thus needs four more electrons to complete
its octet.Consequently, carbon always combines with other atoms by mutual sharing electrons
and thus form covalent bonds.
II. Catenation occurs most readily with carbon, which forms covalent bonds with other carbon
atoms to form longer chains and structures. This is the reason for the presence of the vast
number of organic compounds in nature

4. Why is the conversion of ethanol to ethanoic acid an oxidation reaction?

CH3CH2OH KMnO4 CH3COOH

If we observe the change occurred in the above reaction then we will see that one extra O atom is
been added and two H atoms are being removed from ethanol molecule to convert it into ethanoic
acid.And as we know that the addition of O and removal of H is known as oxidation.So aforesaid
reaction will be considered as oxidation reaction,

PREPARED BY: JOYDEEP DAS (M.TECH, PhD PURSUING) PH: 7005008567/ 9863027277
2 Chapter 4 : Carbon and its compounds

5. A mixture of oxygen and ethyne is burnt for welding. Can you tell why a mixture of ethyne
and air is not used?

A mixture of oxygen and ethyne is burnt for welding instead of mixture of ethyne and air because the
production of heat is very important for welding metals. When oxygen and ethyne are burnt, it burns
completely and produces a higher temperature than air and ethyne. Oxygen and ethyne produce very
hot blue flame because ethyne is an unsaturated hydrocarbon containing high percentage of carbon in
it but the mixture of air and ethyne gives out a sooty flame because of insufficient oxygen of air
which means that there are unburnt particles resulting in lesser heat and produced heat is not enough
to weld metals.

6. How would you distinguish experimentally between an alcohol and a carboxylic acid?

I. Reaction with sodium hydrogen carbonate, Alcohol has no reaction with sodium hydrogen
carbonate (NaHCO3) but in the case of carboxylic acid, it reacts with NaHCO3 which
gives CH3COONa, CO2 and H2O. The reaction is evident as the carbon dioxide will turn the
lime water milky.
II. On adding Na metal to alcohol, H2 gas is released which is evident in the form of bubbles.
Carboxylic acid does not show such reaction

7. What are oxidising agents?

Oxidizing agents are substances which are having the ability of oxidizing any another substance.

These are substances that undergo reduction in the chemical reaction as they give oxygen to
the reactant. While undergoing reduction reaction, it forces others to form a bond with oxygen or to
accept the electrons with oxygen.These agents remove hydrogen from the compound and in turn gain
electrons during the chemical reaction. Some examples for oxidizing agents are the nitric acid,
potassium nitrate.

8. What is an homologous series? Explain with an example.

A homologous series defined as a family or group of structurally similar organic compounds and any
two successive members of this group are differ by –CH2 group.The individual members of such a
series are called homologues and the phenomenon is called homology.

For example alkanes constitute a homologous series CH4,C2H6,C3H8

PREPARED BY: JOYDEEP DAS (M.TECH, PhD PURSUING) PH: 7005008567/ 9863027277
3 Chapter 4 : Carbon and its compounds

9. Would you be able to check if water is hard by using a detergent?

It is not possible to check whether water is hard or not A detergent is a surfactant or mixture of
surfactants that has cleaning properties in dilute solution with water. It is similar to soap, but with a
general structure R-SO4-, Na+, where R is a long-chain alkyl group. Most detergents are
akylbenzenefulfonates. Detergents tend to be more soluble in hard water than soap because the
sulfonate of detergent doesn't bind calcium and other ions present in hard water as easily as the
carboxylate in soap does.

10. People use a variety of methods to wash clothes. Usually after adding the soap, they ‘beat’
the clothes on a stone, or beat it with a paddle, scrub with a brush or the mixture is agitated in
a washing machine.Why is agitation necessary to get clean clothes?

The basic structure of all soaps is essentially the same, consisting of a long hydrophobic (water-
fearing) hydrocarbon "tail" and a hydrophilic (waterloving) anionic "head".Soap molecules attach
themselves to the grease or dirt particles with the help of these and form a cluster called micelle. The
micelles remain suspended as a colloid. When they are being beaten or agitated, agitation aid soap
micelles to trap the oil, grease or any other impurities that have to be and go into the water, thus
cleaning the clothes

11. Explain the nature of the covalent bond using the bond formation in CH3Cl.

Covalent bonds are the most important means of bonding in chemistry. A covalent bond consists of
the mutual sharing of one or more pairs of electrons between two atoms. These electrons are
simultaneously attracted by the two atomic nuclei.

In CH3Cl, Carbon can neither lose 4 electrons nor do gain four electrons as these process make the
system unstable due to requirement of extra energy. Therefore CH3Cl completes its octet
configuration by sharing its 4 electrons with carbon atoms or with atoms of other elements. Hence the
bonding that exists in CH3Cl is a covalent bonding.Here, carbon requires 4 electrons to complete its
octet, while each hydrogen atom requires one electron to complete its duplet. Also, chlorine requires
an electron to complete the octet.Therefore, all of these share the electrons and as a result, carbon
forms 3 bonds with hydrogen and one with chlorine.

PREPARED BY: JOYDEEP DAS (M.TECH, PhD PURSUING) PH: 7005008567/ 9863027277
4 Chapter 4 : Carbon and its compounds

13. How can ethanol and ethanoic acid be differentiated on the basis of their physical and
chemical properties?

Based on the physical properties:

i. Ethanol has pleasant smell and On the other hand ethanoic acid has a pungent smell of
vineger.
ii. The boiling point of ethanol is 351K and ethanoic acid has comparatively higher boiling
point than ehanol i.e. 391 K. So ethanol is more volatile than ehanoic acid.

Based on the chemical properties:

i. Ethanol doesn’t bring any change in colour on litmus paper whereas ethanoic acid turns
blue litmus into red.
ii. Metal carbonates or bicarbonates (e.g. NaHCO3) doesn’t react with ethanol but it reacts
with ethanoic acid and forms salt, water and carbodioxide .

NaHCO3 + C2H5OH X (no reaction)

NaHCO3 + CH3COOH CH3COONa + H2O + CO2

14. Why does micelle formation take place when soap is added to water? Will a micelle be
formed in other solvents such as ethanol also?

The basic structure of all soaps is essentially the same, consisting of a long hydrophobic (water-
fearing) hydrocarbon "tail" and a hydrophilic (waterloving) anionic "head".When soap is dissolved in
water hydrophobic ends of soap molecules surround a particle of grease(or dirt) and form a spherical
cluster called micelle. So, the hydrophilic end lies outside the sphere and hydrophobic end is towards
the centre of the sphere. This is why micelle formation takes place when soap is added to water.
Micelle is not formed in other solvent as it is formed on basis of hydrphilicity and hydrophobicity of
two differeent end of the soap molecule ,such as ethanol.

15. Why are carbon and its compounds used as fuels for most applications?

Whether the fuel is for domestic or for industrial use ,the prime criteria for selecting a good fuels is,
the compound should possess have high calorific value(the amount of energy released when unit
amount of fuel is burnt in air). Carbon and its compounds used as fuels for most applications because

PREPARED BY: JOYDEEP DAS (M.TECH, PhD PURSUING) PH: 7005008567/ 9863027277
5 Chapter 4 : Carbon and its compounds

they have high calorific values and give out a lot of energy. Most of the carbon compounds give a lot
of heat and light when burnt in air.

16. Explain the formation of scum when hard water is treated with soap.

Soaps doesn’t work properly in water. Scum is produced when salts of hard water react with soap
molecules. Calcium and magnesium ions present in the salts displace sodium or pottasium ions and
form an insoluble precipitate that stick as a as scum.

Ca2+ + RCOONa (soap) RCOOCa (scum) + Na+

Mg2+ + RCOONa RCOOMg + Na+

18. What is hydrogenation? What is its industrial application?

Hydrogenation is a process or a chemical reaction between hydrogen and other compounds. It is

usually done in the presence of catalysts: for example nickel, palladium or platinum. Hydrogenation
is used mainly to saturate organic compounds.

CH2 = CH2 ⟶ CH3CH3

Industrial application: Hydrogenation is used in many industrial applications. In Petrochemical

Industry, hydrogenation is used to convert alkenes into alkanes (paraffins) and cycloalkanes.
Hydrogenation is also used to prepare vegetable ghee from vegetable oils.

19. Give a test that can be used to differentiate chemically between butter and cooking oil.

Butter generally composed of saturated carbon chains while cooking oil has unsaturated carbon
chains.

Bromine water test - is used to differentiate between (cooking oil) the unsaturated compounds (like
alkenes and alkynes) and (Butter) the saturated compounds. For this purpose, bromine is used in the
form of bromine water. A solution of bromine in water is called bromine water. Bromine water has a
red-brown color due to the presence of bromine in it. When bromine water is added to an unsaturated
compound, then bromine gets added to the unsaturated compound forms di or tetra halo compounds
which is colorless. So, if the compound decolorizes bromine water, then it will be cooking oil
(containing a doublebond or a triple bond) or else the compound is ghee.

C2H6( saturated hydrocarbon) + Br2 = remain red

C2H4 (unsaturated hydrocarbon)+ Br2 = C2H4Br2 (Red colour disappears)

PREPARED BY: JOYDEEP DAS (M.TECH, PhD PURSUING) PH: 7005008567/ 9863027277