Hydrocarbon characteristics

What Are the Key Ideas The large numbers of different hydrocarDons arise from the ability of carbon atoms to form long chains and rings with one another the types of carbon-carbon bonds that are present give the hydrocarbons characteristic properties. 

As seen in Table 6.4.3, the brominated molecules resulting from the brominated polystyrene represent more than 96% of the pyrolysis products. However, a small proportion of hydrocarbons characteristic for poly(styrene) pyrolysis are present. These... 

Its charge transfer complexes with aromatic hydrocarbons have characteristic melting points and may be used for the identification and purification of the hydrocarbons. 

The molar volume characteristics, V, for petroleum fractions and hydrocarbons can be obtained from the known density at temperature T ... 

The luminometer index (ASTM D 1740) is a characteristic that is becoming less frequently used. It is determined using the standard lamp mentioned above, except that the lamp is equipped with thermocouples allowing measurement of temperatures corresponding to different flame heights, and a photo-electric cell to evaluate the luminosity. The jet fuel under test is compared to two pure hydrocarbons tetraline and iso-octane to which are attributed the indices 0 and 100, respectively. The values often observed in commercial products usually vary between 40 and 70 the official specification is around 45 for TRO. 

Their satisfactory combustion requires no particular characteristics and the specifications are solely concerned with safety considerations (vapor pressure) and the C3 and C4 hydrocarbon distribution. 

Crude petroleum is fractionated into around fifty cuts having a very narrow distillation intervals which allows them to be considered as ficticious pure hydrocarbons whose boiling points are equal to the arithmetic average of the initial and final boiling points, = (T, + Ty)/2, the other physical characteristics being average properties measured for each cut. 

When a customer agrees to purchase gas, product quality is specified in terms of the calorific value of the gas, measured by the Wobbe index (calorific value divided by density), the hydrocarbon dew point and the water dew point, and the fraction of other gases such as Nj, COj, HjS. The Wobbe index specification ensures that the gas the customer receives has a predictable calorific value and hence predictable burning characteristics. If the gas becomes lean, less energy is released, and if the gas becomes too rich there is a risk that the gas burners flame out . Water and hydrocarbon dew points (the pressure and temperature at which liquids start to drop out of the gas) are specified to ensure that over the range of temperature and pressure at which the gas is handled by the customer, no liquids will drop out (these could cause possible corrosion and/or hydrate formation). 

Figure Bl.25.2 shows the XPS spectra of two organoplatinum complexes which contain different amounts of chlorine. The spectrum shows the peaks of all elements expected from the compounds, the Pt 4f and 4d doublets (the 4f doublet is iimesolved due to the low energy resolution employed for broad energy range scans). Cl 2p and Cl 2s, N Is and C Is. Flowever, the C Is caimot be taken as characteristic for the complex only. All surfaces that have not been cleaned by sputtermg or oxidation in the XPS spectrometer contain carbon. The reason is that adsorbed hydrocarbons from the atmosphere give the optimum lowering of the surface free energy and hence, all surfaces are covered by hydrocarbon fragments [9].

Like bromine, iodine is soluble in organic solvents, for example chloroform, which can be used to extract it from an aqueous solution. The iodine imparts a characteristic purple colour to the organic layer this is used as a test for iodine (p. 349). NB Brown solutions are formed when iodine dissolves in ether, alcohol, and acetone. In chloroform and benzene a purple solution is formed, whilst a violet solution is produced in carbon disulphide and some hydrocarbons. These colours arise due to charge transfer (p. 60) to and from the iodine and the solvent organic molecules. 

The free radical mechanism is confirmed by the fact that if a substituted aromatic hydrocarbon is used in this reaction, the incoming group (derived from the diazotate) may not necessarily occupy the position in the benzene ring normally determined by the substituent present—a characteristic of free radical reactions. 

Physical Properties. Benzene, C H, toluene, C Hj-CH, and petrol (a mixture of aliphatic hydrocarbons, e.g., pentane, hexane, etc.) are colourless liquids, insoluble in and lighter than water. Benzene and toluene, which have similar odours, are not readily distinguishable chemically, and their physical constants should therefore be carefully noted benzene, m.p. 5 (solidifies when a few ml. in a dry test-tube are chilled in ice-water), b.p. 8i toluene, m.p. —93°, b.p. 110°. Petroleum has a characteristic odour. 

Chakactkrisation of Unsaturatkd Aliphatic Hydrocarbons Unlike the saturated hydrocarbons, unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbons are soluble in concentrated sulphuric acid and exhibit characteristic reactions with dUute potassium permanganate solution and with bromine. Nevertheless, no satisfactory derivatives have yet been developed for these hydrocarbons, and their characterisation must therefore be based upon a determination of their physical properties (boiling point, density and refractive index). The physical properties of a number of selected unsaturated hydrocarbons are collected in Table 111,11. 

Picrates, Picric acid combines with amines to yield molecular compounds (picrates), which usually possess characteristic melting points. Most picrates have the composition 1 mol amine 1 mol picric acid. The picrates of the amines, particularly of the more basic ones, are generally more stable than the molecular complexes formed between picric acid and the hydrocarbons (compare Section IV,9,1). 

Unlike aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons can be sul-phonated and nitrated they also form characteristic molecular compounds with picric acid, styphnic acid and 1 3 5-trinitrobenzene. Many of the reactions of aromatic hydrocarbons will be evident from the following discussion of crystalline derivatives suitable for their characterisation. 

Aromatic hydrocarbons also form coloured and higlily characteristic picrates by interaction with a solution of picric acid (Section IV,9,7). 

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