KUMASI POLYTECHNIC

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY 1

REPORT ON
REACTION OF HYDROCARBONS
BY
SALIFU MUSAH
(CME05061081)

DATE OF EXPERIMENT: 5TH MARCH, 2010.

DATE SUBMITTED: 12TH MARCH, 2010.

SUPERVISOR: MR. ISAAC FRIMPONG

0
 INTRODUCTION
Organic compound are compounds which we mostly use in our daily life activities and except
for few inorganic salts and ever-present water, everything we put or on body being food,
medicine, cosmetics and clothing consist of organic compounds. Some of these organic
compounds in their raw states are useless and toxic unless they converted into suitable forms
and some of these are carried out by cracking that is in petroleum, and also synthesis as in
polymerisation. Hence it is the duty of chemical engineers to know the characteristics, classes
and type of reaction under which these compounds undergo in order to convert them into
useful products. Organic compounds are compounds which contain carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and halogens. Organic compounds are divided into classes and
each of them are characterised by a functional group. A functional group is a chemically bond
atoms that shows characteristics set of properties. Hydrocarbons are an organic compound
that contains carbon and hydrogen and they are classified according to their structure.
Primarily hydrocarbons are divided into aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. Aliphatic
compounds are carbon compounds arranged in open chains and can be straight chained,
branched and can contain single, double or triple bonds. Aliphatic compounds are divided
into three classes; those with single bonds are called alkanes and are said to be saturated and
those with double or triple bonds are alkenes and alkynes and are unsaturated compounds.
Aromatic compounds on the other hand are compounds containing close rings of carbon
atoms in which the pi-electron are delocalised across the structure. They are referred to as
benzene ring compounds and may also contain other atoms like oxygen and nitrogen. In this
experiment the various hydrocarbons are analysed based upon their fundamental reactions
when they are subjected to various varieties of reagents under some experimental conditions
which would be used to distinguish them.

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 PROCEDURE AND RESULTS

Table 1.0

REACTION WITH BROMINE WATER

TEST OBSERVATION INFERENCE

1ml of cyclohexane +
bromine water + sunlight +
shaking + litmus paper
1ml of cyclohexane +
bromine water + dark
1ml of cyclohexene + 3 drops
of bromine water + shaking
Orange colour changes to Alkane present
colourless when exposed to
light
No colour change Alkane present
Decolourisation of bromine Alkene present
water. No colour change.

Table 1.2

REACTION WITH AQUEOUS POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE

TEST OBSERVATION INFERENCE

2ml of cyclohexane + 2 drops No colour change with the Presence of Alkane
KMnO4 + shaking addition of aqueous KMnO4
2ml of cyclohexene + 2 drops Colour changes to colourless Presence of Alkene
KMnO4 + shaking with brown precipitate

2
Table 1.3

REACTION WITH SULPHURIC ACID

TEST OBSERVATION INFERENCE

2ml of sulphuric acid + 10 No reaction. No colour Alkane present
drops of Alkane change
2ml of sulphuric acid + 10 Reaction occurred. Colour Alkene present
drops of Alkene changed to dark brown.

Table 1.4

REACTION OF AROMATIC COMPOUND WITH AQUEOUS POTASSIUM

PERMANGANATE

TEST OBSERVATION INFERENCE

1ml of toluene + 2ml of Two layers formed. Pale Aromatic compound present
dilute KMnO4 + shaking violet and deep violet colour
formed.

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 DISCUSSIONS
Although all hydrocarbons contain carbon and hydrogen, they have different properties. The
most common property used to distinguish these hydrocarbons is based on their reaction with
other compounds.

From the first experiment when bromine water was added to cyclohexane and shaken and
was also kept in the dark, no colour change was observed which indicated presence of an
alkane. But when this same mixture was exposed to the sunlight there was an observable
colour change and evolution of hydrogen bromide gas which was indicated by a blue litmus
paper which turned red. These observable characteristics are very specific of alkanes which
undergo substitution reaction under sunlight. Also when bromine water was added to
cyclohexene, the bromine water decolourised rapidly under room temperature with evolution
of hydrogen bromide gas which indicated the presence of an alkene as they undergo addition
reaction under these conditions.

In the second experiment when drops of KMnO4 solution was added to cyclohexane and
shaken there was no observable reaction which indicated the presence of an alkane as alkanes
are unreactive towards oxiding agents. However when the same drops of KMnO4 solution
was added to cyclohexene, there was a decolourisation of the KMnO4 solution colour which
is characteristics of alkenes as they readily oxidised at room temperature.

In the third experiment, when drops of alkane was added to concentrated sulphuric acid there
was no colour change which indicate the presence of an alkane. When the same drops of
alkene was added to concentrated sulphuric acid, a reaction occurred. The was a colour
change to dark brown.

In the final experiment, aqueous potassium permanganate was added to toluene which formed
two layers of colour. A pale violet colour formed above a deep violet colour showing the
presence of aromatic compound.

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 REFERENCE(S)
R.J. Fesseden and J.S. Fesseden, Organic Chemistry, 4th Edition, California, U.S.A, Pacific
Grove, 1990, Pages 103, 431, 477.

Michelle, J. Sienko, Robert A. Plane, Chemistry, 5th Edition, London, McGraw-Hill Book
Company, 1981, Pages 455-465.