Hydrocarbons and crude oil
Hydrocarbons and crude oil
A hydrocarbon is a compound containing carbon and hydrogen only. Methane, CH4\text{CH}_4CH4, is the simplest hydrocarbon, while ethanol is not a hydrocarbon because it also contains oxygen.
Step-by-step lessons on Edexcel GCSE Chemistry 9.1 Fuels, covering 9.1.1 Hydrocarbons and crude oil, 9.1.2 Fractional distillation of crude oil and its fractions, 9.1.3 The alkanes as a homologous series, 9.1.4 Complete and incomplete combustion, 9.1.5 Pollutants from burning fuels, 9.1.6 Hydrogen as a fuel and non-renewable fossil fuels, and 9.1.7 Cracking of larger alkanes. Each one builds up to exam-style questions. Nail the core quantitative topics — moles, balancing equations and calculations — early on, since they underpin higher-tier questions across every paper and topic.