Alice Cui E10M Carbon plays an essential role in people’s daily life. The cosmetics we use, the food additives we consume in snacks, the diamond we wear on our ring, the oil we use to fuel our cars, and even the DNA in our body are made up of carbon. The reason carbon exist in so many substances is its electron configuration. Carbon has 4 valence electrons and that means it can lose or gain electron to form stable structure easily. In this essay, I am going to focus on several organic compounds, which are fuels of various kinds, and discuss and evaluate their positive and negative impacts on its relevant environmental, economic, social, and health aspects. Alkane is a saturated hydrocarbon compound, which is, consists of C-C and C-H single bonds. Alkanes are highly combustible and it is a valuable fuel, and during combustion reaction, alkane can release a very large amount of heat and the product yield from this reaction is H2O (water), and CO2 (carbon dioxide) or CO (carbon monoxide), in which depends on whether the reaction is complete or incomplete. The first 4 alkanes, Methane, ethane, propane, and butane, are gases and can be used directly as fuel. Alkanes from pentane up to about decane can form gasoline in a specific proportion of mixture. Alkanes that have higher values of n can be found in diesel fuel, petroleum jelly, and motor fuel, and for the highest possible value of n, asphalt. To conclude, the longer the chain of alkane, the more bonds will be broken during combustion reaction and therefore, more energy will be release exothermically.
Even though alkane fuels contributed greatly to our modern transportations but it still have negative effects on people’s health. During complete combustion reaction of alkanes, the products yield are safe for human, but the products incomplete combustion reaction yield is not. If combustion is taking place incorrectly, it is very dangerous for people to be around. Carbon
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