GCSE level organic chemistry exam revision notes:

INDEX of all my OIL PRODUCTS and ORGANIC CHEMISTRY NOTES

Organic chemistry gets its name from the fact that the main sources of organic compounds are living, or once-living materials from plants and animals. Fossil fuels, oil and gas, are a major source of feedstock for the petrochemical industry in which chemists are able to take organic molecules and modify them in many ways to make new and useful materials such as polymers, pharmaceuticals, perfumes and flavourings, dyes, detergents and many other products we take for granted.

All my GCSE level chemistry revision notes

Index of Oil and Organic Chemistry Pages  (for GCSE, IGCSE and O Level students)

1. FOSSIL FUELS, coal, oil, natural gas and peat and the Carbon Cycle

2. Fractional distillation of crude OIL and the uses of refined fractions, what is a good fuel?

3. ALKANES: saturated hydrocarbons, structure, names, combustion, reacts with chlorine

4. Fossil fuel pollution and climate change notes index, including incomplete combustion, carbon monoxide, sulfur/nitrogen oxides, acid rain, greenhouse effect, global warming, climate change, carbon footprint

A local acid rain project !!!

5. ALKENES - unsaturated hydrocarbons - reaction with bromine & hydrogen

6. CRACKING - a problem of supply and demand, other products

7A-G. Addition polymers: poly(ethene), poly(propene), polystyrene, PVC, PTFE, structure & uses

7H-J. More on the uses of plastics, issues with using plastics, solutions & recycling methods

8. Why so many series of organic compounds? - homologous series

9a. Alcohols, Ethanol, manufacture, physical properties & chemical reactions

AND 9b. Biofuels & alternative fuels, hydrogen, biogas, biodiesel

10a. Carboxylic acids - molecular structure, chemistry and uses  

AND 10b. Esters, chemistry and uses including perfumes, solvents  

11. Condensation polymers, Nylon, Terylene/PET, comparing thermoplastics, fibres, thermosets

12. Natural molecules - carbohydrates - sugars - polymers - starch and DNA 

13. Amino acids, proteins, polypeptides, enzymes & chromatography  

14. Natural vegetable oils, fats, margarine, emulsions and soaps  

15. Vitamins, drugs, medicines, E numbers, food additives, cooking chemistry!  

16. Ozone depletion, CFC's and free radicals O₃

GCSE level m/c QUIZ on oil products & organic chemistry (easier-foundation-level)

GCSE level m/c QUIZ on oil products & organic chemistry (harder-higher-level)

ALL my advanced A Level Organic Chemistry revision notes

'Easy' Oil and Organic Chemistry gap-fill worksheets

(originally written for previous GCSE courses, but still useful)

Word-fill quiz "Origin of Crude Oil"

Word-fill quiz "Crude Oil and its Fractional distillation"

Word-fill quiz "Getting products from crude oil"

Word-fill quiz "The Uses of the Fractions from Crude Oil"

Word-fill quiz "More on hydrocarbon molecules"

Word-fill quiz "The uses of the fractions from crude oil and pollution problems"

Word-fill quiz "The chemistry of burning fossil fuels"

Word-fill quiz "Air pollution chemistry and burning fossil fuels"

Word-fill quiz "Reducing air pollution from power stations"

Word-fill quiz "Reducing air pollution from cars"

Word-fill quiz "Burning Fossil Fuels and Environmental Problems"

Word-fill quiz "Making Alcohol and Uses of Alcohol"

Word-fill quiz "Useful Products - Food Additives"

Word-fill quiz "Cracking Oil to make Alkanes and Alkenes"

Word-fill quiz "Cracking oil fractions and uses of products"

Word-fill quiz "Cracking, fuels and polymers"

Word-fill quiz "More on uses of products from cracking"

Word-fill quiz "Examples of alkanes and alkenes and a test for alkenes"

Word-fill quiz "Introduction to Polymers and Plastics"

Word-fill quiz "Making and using polymers"

Word-fill quiz "Vegetable Oils"

Word-fill quiz "Hydrogenated vegetable oil and food additives"

AND a BIG crossword puzzle on our oil based economy!  (Crossword puzzle answers)

Some sections of material science that may overlap with organic chemistry

NANOCHEMISTRY

Part 1. General introduction to nanoscience and commonly used terms explained

Part 2. NANOCHEMISTRY - an introduction and potential applications

Part 3. Uses of Nanoparticles of titanium(IV) oxide, fat and silver

Part 4. From fullerenes & bucky balls to carbon nanotubes

Part 5. Graphene and Fluorographene

Part 6. Cubic and hexagonal boron nitride BN

Part 7. Problems, issues and implications associated with using nanomaterials

SMART MATERIALS

Part 1 CHROMOGENIC MATERIALS - Thermochromic, Photochromic & Electrochromic Materials

Part 2 SHAPE MEMORY ALLOYS e.g. Nitinol & Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys

Part 3 SHAPE MEMORY POLYMERS, pH and temperature sensitive-responsive polymers, self-healing materials

Part 4 LYCRA-SPANDEX

Part 5 High performance polymers like KEVLAR

Part 6 GORETEX, THINSULATE and TEFLON-PTFE

Part 7 PIEZOELECTRIC EFFECT (PIEZOELECTRIC MATERIALS) & PHOTOMECHANICAL MATERIALS

Part 8 CARBON FIBRES

A warning! Most of the chemistry described on these pages, as well as most developed national economies, is based on crude oil at the moment, and, will no doubt to continue to do so for some time - but NOT FOREVER. Unfortunately oil won't last forever and much of our 'oil based economy' is not sustainable in the future and the potential dangers to the planet from 'climate change' i.e. the global warming from the 'Greenhouse Effect' aided by fossil fuel burning also make uncomfortable thinking. As the world population increases, oil based agriculture is not going to be able to feed everyone. Food production uses huge amounts of energy in the production of artificial-synthetic fertilisers, transportation and machinery on farms.

Therefore, one would hope that more 'green sustainable' economic systems will be developed including alternative energy supplies not based on fossil fuels and major changes in agricultural practices to be much less reliant on 'oil' and 'greener' methodology in the chemical industry itself. It is fair to point out that crude oil is an extremely valuable chemical raw material and produces really useful products from smart material plastics to lifesaving drugs and components in many consumer products that are genuinely useful to improving the quality of our lives. therefore burning it is its crudest possible use. In the long-run it should be conserved and used much more sparingly for specific and necessary purposes.

Multiple Choice Quizzes and Worksheets

KS4 Science GCSE level m/c QUIZ on Oil Products (easier-foundation-level)

KS4 Science GCSE level m/c QUIZ on Oil Products (harder-higher-level)

and 3 linked easy Oil Products gap-fill quiz worksheets

ALSO gap-fill ('word-fill') exercises originally written for ...

... AQA GCSE Science Useful products from crude oil

AND Oil, Hydrocarbons & Cracking etc.

... OCR 21st C GCSE Science Worksheet gap-fill C1.1c Air pollutants etc ...

... Edexcel 360 GCSE Science Crude Oil and its Fractional distillation etc ...

... each set are interlinked, so clicking on one of the above leads to a sequence of several quizzes