Reactions of Alkenes

This content will be covered over the rest of the week, so this post will be updated regularly.

Here is an introduction to two of the most simple reactions of alkenes: combustion and addition:

The first task we started with today was to draw and name as many isomers of C₆H₁₂ as possible...this was tough!! According to the internet, there are over 20!!

Then, we were taught about oxidation and polymerisation:

Alkenes - Introduction

Alkenes are unsaturated hydrocarbons. The functional group is a C=C bond (double bond). This lesson was based around the isomers and nomenclature of alkenes:

Here is the activity we started with that shows alkenes have the same general formula as cyclic alkanes:

Here is the activity we did at the start on Monday's lesson...just a little tougher:

Reactions of Alkanes

We were shown a couple of simple reactions of alkanes: combustion and substitution.

Then we had to do balanced equations for these and learn about "cracking":

Alkanes - Introduction to Organic Chemistry

I'm not a fan of teaching this topic the way Beginning Chemistry does. I prefer to "get into it" with the functional groups and cover types of reactions, nomenclature and isomerism over and over again, in context. So, we jumped straight into using MolyMods to make as many isomers of C₅H₁₂ as possible.

Here are the questions we tried at the start of the next lesson:

Acid Strength

Acids can be described as concentrated or dilute. This is about how much water is used to make them up. They can also be described as strong or weak. This is about the concentration of hydronium ions. Concentration has some effect, but the extent to which an acid dissociates (turns into ions) is more important:

Chemical Minds

Check out this wikispace, set up by Michele McMahon at St Cuthbert's College.

Calculating pH of Bases