Determine whether there is a relationship between the increasing length of the carbon chain and the enthalpy of combustion of the alcohol that contains the carbon chain.

Authors Avatar

The Enthalpy Change of combustion of Alcohols

This experiment is carried out to determine whether there is a relationship between the increasing length of the carbon chain and the enthalpy of combustion of the alcohol that contains the carbon chain. If such a relationship arises can this information be used to predict the enthalpy change of combustion of any alcohol? This will hopefully be answered by the following experiment.

The experiment will use known alcohols as heat source. The alcohol will be completely combusted this means that it will react with only the oxygen in the air to give carbon dioxide and water. Alcohols can be used as heat sources because they react exothermically. This means that when they react they give out more energy than they take in. In a reaction involving the complete combustion of an alcohol the bonds in that alcohol and the oxygen it is reacting with are broken. Energy is required for this to happen. These bonds then reform in a new order to make new compounds and chemicals in this case oxygen and water.

The energy required to break a bond and the energy released when a new bond is formed is called the bond energy. These bond energies are always the same whether they are making or breaking bonds.

Join now!

These bond energy values in the above table are only averages. This is because not all atoms the same they contain the same number of protons but some contain different numbers of neutrons. These atoms with different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes. These isotopes will exert a slightly higher or lower gravitation attraction on their electrons. The molecular shape also affects bond energies. In higher length carbon chain molecules isomers are formed. Isomers are compounds that have the same chemical formula but have a different structural formula. It is the different structure that affects the bond ...

This is a preview of the whole essay