Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
In an oil refinery, heavy fractions of petroleum are heated to a high temperature in the absence of air. Large alkane molecules break into smaller ones, and the smaller molecules are worth more as fuel and as a raw material for plastics. A laboratory model of this process uses of dodecane, , which is cracked completely into heptane, , and one other hydrocarbon X, in the mole ratio . No other product forms, and the two products are separated by distillation, since their boiling points are far apart. The molar masses are for dodecane, for heptane and for X.
Halogenation of an alkane is a free-radical chain. The share of a product is the number of hydrogen atoms of that kind times their relative rate, divided by the total. Chlorine: for primary, secondary and tertiary. Bromine: . Complete combustion of an alkane gives and .
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. Formula of X. Carbon: . Hydrogen: . So X is . It matches the formula of an alkene, .
Step 2. Isomers. Pent-1-ene, pent-2-ene, 2-methylbut-1-ene, 3-methylbut-1-ene and 2-methylbut-2-ene. That is .
Step 3. Moles. of dodecane. It gives of each product.
Step 4. Masses. Heptane: . X: .
Answer: hydrogen atoms, isomers, of heptane and of X. The two masses add to , as they should.
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