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CHAPTER 4

Carbon and Its Compounds

Understand covalent bonding, homologous series, functional groups, reactions and everyday carbon compounds.

Topics in this chapter

  1. Bonding in carbon
  2. Versatile nature of carbon
  3. Saturated and unsaturated compounds
  4. Chains, branches and rings
  5. Homologous series
  6. Functional groups
  7. Nomenclature basics
  8. Combustion, oxidation, addition and substitution
  9. Ethanol and ethanoic acid
  10. Soaps and detergents

Key learning points

✓ Carbon is tetravalent and shows catenation.

✓ Covalent compounds usually have low melting and boiling points and do not conduct electricity well.

✓ Members of a homologous series have the same functional group and differ by –CH₂–.

✓ Soap forms micelles that help remove oily dirt.

Important equations

CH₄ + 2O₂ → CO₂ + 2H₂OCH₂=CH₂ + H₂ → CH₃–CH₃CH₃CH₂OH + 2[O] → CH₃COOH + H₂OCH₃COOH + C₂H₅OH ⇌ CH₃COOC₂H₅ + H₂O

Multiple-choice questions

1. The functional group in ethanol is:
  1. –CHO
  2. –COOH
  3. –OH
  4. –CO–

Answer: C — –OH

2. Successive members of a homologous series differ by:
  1. CH₃
  2. CH₂
  3. OH
  4. COOH

Answer: B — CH₂

3. Soap cleans oily dirt mainly by forming:
  1. Crystals
  2. Micelles
  3. Salts
  4. Alloys

Answer: B — Micelles

Very short-answer questions

  1. What is catenation?
  2. Name the functional group in ethanoic acid.
  3. What is a homologous series?

Short-answer questions

  1. Explain why carbon forms a very large number of compounds.
  2. Differentiate between soaps and detergents.

Long-answer question

  1. Describe important chemical properties of carbon compounds with suitable equations.