Making Alcohols 10/02/2022

Practice
1. Describe how crude oil is formed
 Plankton is buried under mud and is pressurized of millions of
years
2. Explain how fractional distillation works
 Crude oil is vaporised
 The vapours rise up a fractionating column
 It is put in a fractional distillation column with a temperature
gradient (cooler at the top, hotter at the bottom)
 The different fractions will condense at their boiling points,
and separate because they have different boiling points

FERMENTATION
 Bacteria can anaerobically digest glucose
 We use yeast
GLUCOSE -> ETHANOL + CARBON DIOXIDE
C6H12O6 -> 2C2H5OH +2CO2
EVALUATE
BY HYDRATION OF BY FERMENTATION OF
✓ OR ✗ ✓ OR ✗
ETHENE SUGAR
from crude oil ✗ ✓ from plants
non-renewable ✗ ✓ renewable
continuous process ✓ ✗ batch process
few workers needed ✓ ✗ habitat loss
high temperatures
✗ ✓ low temperatures needed
needed
makes pure ethanol ✓ ✗ product needs distilling
crops need specific
unaffected by climate ✓ ✗
conditions
Practice
 1. What is a biofuel?
Ä A biofuel is a fuel that is produced by living plants
a. Does either method produce a biofuel?
Ä
2. What does ‘carbon neutral’ mean
Ä Carbon neutral is when a good or service takes in as much
carbon dioxide as it emits over its life cycle
a. Explain whether each method is carbon neutral or not
Ä Fermentation of sugar is carbon neutral because the
growth of plants to provide sugar removes carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
definitions
functional group: -COOH
general formula: CnH2n+1COOH
carboxylic acids are acidic substances: pH <7
carboxylic acids are miscible with water
ACIDITY
carboxylic acids are weak acids:
HCl -> H+ + Cl+
CH3COOH ⇋ H+ + CH3COO-
They only partially ionize
Reactions with carbonates:
Acid + carbonate -> salt + water + carbon dioxide
Ethanoic acid + sodium carbonate -> sodium carbonate + water + carbon dioxide

Practice
1. Explain why the solution of ethanoic acid has a higher pH than the
solution of hydrochloric acid
  It is a carboxylic acid, so it is a weak acid
 It has more / a higher concentration of H+ ions
 It doesn’t dissociate completely
2. A 1.0x10-3 mol/dm3 solution of hydrochloric acid has a pH of 3.0.
what is the pH of a 1.0x10-5 mol/dm3 solution of hydrochloric acid?
 5.0
3. A student added a strong acid to a weakly acidic solution of pH 6.
The pH of the new solution was found to be pH 3. By how many
times did the concentration of H+ increase?
 1x103 times
4. Two solutions of acid are of the same concentration. Only 1% of
the weak acid dissociates in solution. If the strong acid has a pH of
2, what is the pH of the weak acid?
 pH 4

REACTIONS
 react with metals slowly to make hydrogen gas
 neutralise alkalis
 example:
Ä Mg + 2CH3COOH -> Mg(CH3COO)2 + H2
ESTERS
What are esters?
 Molecules which contain the -COO- functional group
 CH3COOCH2CH3
Formation
carboxylic acid + alcohol -> ester + water
ETHYL ETHANOATE
 Formed in the reaction between ethanol and ethanoic acid.
Ä CH3CH2OH + CH3COOH -> CH3CH2OOCCH3 + H2O
 Known as a condensation reaction, requires an acid catalyst
 Ethanol becomes ethyl, ethanoic acid becomes ethanoate
Properties of esters
 Sweet smelling
 Volatile (evaporates easily)
Uses of esters
 Perfumes
 Food flavourings