From Atoms to Materials

hydrocarbon 碳氫化合物 Atoms combine to become molecules. We learnt about molecules in Chapter 6 in Book 1B. methane 甲烷 What does crude oil contain? Composition of crude oil Crude oil is a mixture of hundreds of compounds. Most of these compounds are hydrocarbons . Hydrocarbons are compounds that are made up of the elements hydrogen and carbon only. A Hydrocarbons exist as molecules. Hydrocarbon molecules are of various sizes and shapes, depending on how many hydrogen atoms and carbon atoms they contain, and how these atoms join together. Fig. 13.29 Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons of different molecular sizes. crude oil hydrocarbon molecules Snapshot methane 1 carbon atom 4 hydrogen atoms hexadecane 16 carbon atoms 34 hydrogen atoms heptane 7 carbon atoms 16 hydrogen atoms Hydrocarbon molecules The simplest hydrocarbon is methane*. Each methane molecule contains 1 carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms. However, some large hydrocarbon molecules may contain over 100 atoms. 13 From Atoms to Materials 81 © United Prime Educational Publishing (HK) Limited 2024 All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, photocopied, recorded or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Sample