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Funkiest Funkiest
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8 years ago
The properties of kerosene as a chemical property is flammable with oxygen. Explain
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8 years ago
Kerosene isn't just one substance, it's a mixture of 4 hydrocarbons: dodecane (C12H26), tridecane (C13H28), tetradecane (C14H30), and pentadecane (C15H32).

Assuming you get complete combustion of these 4 substances, you'll get:

dodecane + oxygen Rightwards Arrow carbon dioxide + water.
tridecane + oxygen Rightwards Arrow carbon dioxide + water
tetradecane + oxygen Rightwards Arrow carbon dioxide + water
pentadecane + oxygen Rightwards Arrow carbon dioxide + water

Writing this as a chemical equation (rather than word equation) is a bit more challenging. It's a good chance to practise balancing equations!
dodecane + oxygen Rightwards Arrow carbon dioxide + water.
2 C12H26 + 37 O2 Rightwards Arrow 12 CO2 + 13 H2O.

Or, in words, for the complete combustion of 2 molecules of dedecane we need 37 molecules of oxygen. This gives us 12 molecules of carbon dioxide and 13 molecules of water.
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I'll leave you to balance the combustion reactions of the other 3 hydrocarbons. Two important things first:
1. You have to have the same number of atoms on both side of the equation. You can't just dissapear (or make) carbon atoms.

2. When balancing an equation you change the number of molecules of a substance, not the substance! For instance, if you have 4 hydrogen atoms and 2 oxygen atoms in your reactants you don't get H4O2, you get 2 H2O (2 molecules of water)
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