Alcohols make good fuels because they burn easily and they release a lot of heat energy, which can be harnessed to power machines etc... The combustion of alcohol is an exothermic reaction and this me

Fractional distillation is the process of heating up a mixture containing different substances with different boiling points, and drawing the different fractions off as they each boil and liquify at i

The general formula for alkenes is as follows: CnH2n   (where "n" is a constant) Alkenes are unsaturated hydrocarbons because they contain a double bond between two of their carbon

The general formula for alkanes is as follows: CnH2n+2   (where "n" is a constant) The first ten members of the homologous series of the alkanes are: CH4     (Metha

Organic chemistry is the study of carbon compounds. The number of different organic compounds which are known is well over 1 million and these compounds vary in properties, economic importance and us

The carbon cycle is simply the process by which Carbon Dioxide is put into and removed from the atmosphere. This process is very finely balanced to keep the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere at 0.03

There are 3 main processes undertaken in the water purifying process: Filtration Bacterial Oxidation Chlorine Treatment The different stages are listed in more detail below: Water pumped f

Temporary Hard Water This is caused by calcium or magnesium hydrogen-carbonate. It can be removed by boiling the water. Ca(HCO3)2 (aqueous)   ---->   CaCO3 (solid)   +   H2

Soap contains salts such as sodium stearate and sodium palmitate and when calcium ions in hard water mix with soap, a precipitate of calcium stearate / calcium palmitate is formed. In the following eq

Hard water does not produce as much lather as soft water when it is used with soap and also an insoluble solid called scum is left on the sides of the wash basin. Calcium chloride, Magnesium nitrate,

Thermal Decomposition A single substance is broken down by heating. A good example of this is the cracking of hydrocarbons. Displacement When one more reactive element pushes another less reactive el

This is the (chemical) process by which a compound in its molten state is decomposed to form its elements. Some of its uses are as follows: Extraction of reactive metals from their ore. (e.g. - alumin

Testing for Cations Cations are positively charged (+) ions. There are 2 basic tests for them: Flame test Adding NaOH (aq) to solution of ionic compound The flame test involves a clean nichrome

Metallic Bonding This occurs in metals and is when electrons are given out from the metal atoms to make a "sea" of free electrons in between all of the metal atoms. These free electrons hol

The table below lists some important ions that you should really know about: Name of Ion Formula Hydroxide OH (-) Carbonate CO3 (-2)

The following list shows how reactive different elements are in relation to each other. This is a shortened list but contains most of the elements that you need to know about. Potassium