2006-09-19 01:58:55 · 5 answers · asked by AHMED A 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
About 250 compounds make up 95+% of gasoline. Most have between 5 and 12 carbon atoms and 6 to 26 hydrogen atoms.
Some are straight-chain ("alkanes") like Krichwey drew in his post.
Some "unsaturated" or double-bonded alkenes are in there too, but not as many.
Others are branched - the carbon "backbone" has a T or a Y in it with hydrogens added until all carbons have four bonds.
Some are ring compounds - cyclohexane, benzene, toulene, xylene, etc. Usually a 6-carbon ring (benzene and cyclohexane) which can have other carbon atoms (1 to 4) hanging off of the ring. Plus the usual hydrogens.
If you want a few specific molecules that could characterize range of stuff in gasoline, I'd google for properties and molecular diagrams of:
Benzene (ring) C6H6, Octane C8H18 (straight chain), and Methyl Hexane C7H16 (branched)
Here are a bunch of diagrams of straight and branched gasoline-range moecules: http://courses.cm.utexas.edu/archive/Fall2004/CH310M/Pagenkopf/Calendar/Nifty%20Stuff/06%20Constitutional%20Isomers.htm
2006-09-21 04:36:08 · answer #1 · answered by David in Kenai 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Kind of difficult to do, since "gasoline" is not a specific chemical compound, but rather a mixture of hydrocarbons distilled/extracted from crude oil and modified to get specific characteristics. Check out the Wikipedia article for more details.
2006-09-19 09:02:21 · answer #2 · answered by Dave_Stark 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are thousands of different molecules in ordinary gasoline. Not only that but the composition varies widely even from the same source.
2006-09-19 09:26:02 · answer #3 · answered by Richard 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gasoline is a mixture of paraffins. The lightest of them is usually pentane (C5H12) and the heaviest is octane (C8H18). Paraffins are chains of carbon atoms that have hydrogen atoms attached to them. The number if hydrogen atoms is two more than twice the number of carbon atoms. If there are N carbon atoms, then there will be 2N+2 hydrogen atoms.
2006-09-19 09:21:29 · answer #4 · answered by David S 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The dominant ingredients in gasoline are straight-chain hydrocarbons, also known as members of the paraffin family. These are compounds such as hexane, heptane, octane, nonane, etc. that consist of a chain of carbon atoms joined to hydrogen atoms. The carbons at the ends of the chain join to 3 hydrogens and the other carbons join to 2 hydrogens, like hexane shown below. The general formula for the paraffin family is CnH2n+2, or C6H14 in the case of hexane.
......H...H...H...H...H...H
H...C...C...C...C...C...C...H
......H...H...H...H...H...H
2006-09-19 09:16:33 · answer #5 · answered by kirchwey 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋