ORGANIC

CHEMISTRY
The alkanes
1. Alkanes are a series of compounds formed with
carbon and hydrogen.
2. Compounds containing only carbon and
hydrogen are called hydrocarbons.
3. The alkanes contain only carbon-carbon or
carbon-hydrogen single bonds.
4. Alkanes have the same general formula, similar
chemical properties and no functional group:
Such groups are called homologous series.
The alkanes as a homologous series
1. The series grows as one CH2- unit is
added at a time.
2. The general formula is
CnH2n+2 , where n is the number of carbon atoms
3. Which of these are alkanes;
C3H8, C2H4, C8H18, CH4, C6H6 ?
4. Alkanes have no functional group; they all
have only single C-C and C-H bonds
exclusively.
Naming organic molecules
1. Organic molecules have a naming
system based on
a. The number of carbon atoms in the prefix
b. The type of functional group in that molecule
in the suffix or an extra prefix
2. The functional group is a type of bond or
another atom (O, N, S, P or a halogen) or
group of atoms (-OH, for example) that
are present in the molecule.
3. The number of carbon atoms in the (main
part of molecule) molecule is shown by
the prefixes:
meth- 1 carbon atom
eth- 2 carbon atoms
prop- 3 carbon atoms
but- 4 carbon atoms
pent- 5 carbon atoms
hex- 6 carbon atoms
hept- 7 carbon atoms
Chemical properties of the alkanes
1. Very unreactive, because they are
saturated (i.e. no more atoms can be
added to their molecules)
2. Their main reaction is combustion –
burning in air (oxygen) – this is highly
exothermic: the more carbon atoms in
the alkane, the more energy is produced
3. Examples CH4 + 2O2  CO2 + 2H2O
2C4H10 + 13O2  8CO2 + 10H2O
4. A second type of alkane reaction is called
a substitution reaction
Substitution reactions of alkanes

A chlorine molecule splits in the

presence of UV light to give two
highly reactive chlorine radicals:

Cl2  2 Cl·
 hydrogen
chloride

chlorine radical

methane methyl radical

A chlorine radical reacts with a methane

molecule forming hydrogen chloride and a highly
reactive methyl radical:

Cl· + CH4  CH3 · + HCl

methyl radical chloromethane

chlorine molecule

chlorine radical

The methyl radical reacts with a chlorine

molecule producing chloromethane and a
new chlorine radical:

CH3· + Cl2  CH3Cl + Cl·

This type of reaction in which one or more of the
products becomes a reactant is called a chain
reaction.
As the chloromethane can also form radicals during
the reaction, a mixture of halogenoalkane products
is formed:

chloromethane
dichloromethane

trichloromethane (chloroform) tetrachloromethane

 More on burning alkanes
size large molecule,
small molecule many carbon
few carbon atoms
atoms

ease of
burning difficult to light

ignites easily

smokiness yellow smoky

of flame flame
blue flame,
almost no
smoke
Making a comparison of ease of lighting
(flammability), brightness of flame and
soot production using the alcohols.
Alcohol, Flammability Brightness Amount of
number of soot
carbons
Methanol, 1

Ethanol, 2

Propanol, 3

Butanol, 4
Melting points (in blue) and boiling points
(in pink) of the first fourteen alkanes
Source - Wikipedia

Temperature
in °C

Number of carbon atoms

1. The melting points and boiling points of
the alkanes increase with the number of
carbons due to increasingly higher
intermolecular forces.
2. The increase in boiling point explains why
the smaller alkanes (and alcohols) are
more flammable than the larger ones.
The smaller alkanes produce more
vapour at room temperature. It is the
vapour that burns.
Viscosity and the number of carbon
atoms
1. Viscosity measures how resistant a
substance is to changing shape
2. The liquid hydrocarbons (C5 to C19) get
more and more viscous and oily as the
number of carbon atoms increase.
3. The solid hydrocarbons (C20) and greater
are waxy substances
4. Hydrocarbons with very large numbers of
carbon atoms in their molecules form
bitumen which is used to make tar.
Practice
Answer the questions on page 253 of
Complete Chemistry.