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OCR Isomerisation help

Hi,i'm doing a project on isomerisation to obtain branched chain alkanes, and i have a few questions that i wonered if anyone could help me with:

1. Whyis it that once you've broken the straight chain alkane and let it join together again, why is it that they are more likely to form branched chains than they are straight chains?

2. What is the octane property/rating, and why is it increased when you form these branched chain alkanes in, for example, the isomerisation of pentane/hexane?

any help would be great, thanks! :smile:

Reply 1

charco

Study Forum Helper

1. statistics! There is only 1 straight chain but there are many possible branched chains
2. Octane rating is the burning (auto-ignition) characteristics of a fuel compared to pure iso-octane (2,2,4 trimethylpentane) = 100 and n-heptane = 0