Monday, May 23, 2016

3.1 Explain the terms homologous series, hydrocarbon, saturated, unsaturated, general formula and isomerism.

HOMOLOGOUS SERIES: 
"A homologous series is a family of hydrocarbons with similar chemical properties who share the same general formula" (BBC Bitesize). Basically, compounds (in this case hydrocarbons) in the same homologous series have the SAME general formula and SIMILAR chemical properties

HYDROCARBON
A compounds made up of ONLY hydrogen and carbon atoms

SATURATED 
A compound is described as 'saturated' if it ONLY has single bonds present. This means that the compounds has "bonded as many times as possible" (Hannah Help). 

UNSATURATED
A hydrocarbon with a double carbon carbon bond is described as unsaturated, because more bonds can be made (as can be seen later in polymerisation)

GENERAL FORMULA
A formula that all members of the same homologous series will fit.

ISOMERISM
Compounds with the same chemical formulas, but different structural formulas

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