Ethanol, USE IT!

Recently, Ethanol has been experimented as fuel. Brasil uses ethanol in their fuel. It's about 25% ethanol and 75% gasoline. Most of their cars can run on this and some can even run on 100% ethanol! Their secret? They use sugarcane to make their ethanol. The people in the US, on the other hand, use corn. They have made hydrous ethanol, which is 95% ethanol, 5% water. This can power anything from cars to rockets. And it gives off no harmful emissions to the ozone. It's 100% green! Next time you go to the pump for some gas, just think what you could be using. Your missing out, MAKE THE SWITCH!!

What is Ethanol?

Ethanol, commonly called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, or even spirits, is used for a variety of purposes. Usually for drinking, it is one of the most used recreational drugs and is a depressant. It also is a hybrid fuel which is greener than fossil fuel.

Species Type

C2H6O, also known as Ethanol, is a tetrahedal. The angle between bonds is 109.5 degrees. The species type is AX4

Intermolecular Forces in Ethanol

 ------ Dipole Dipole, ______ Hydrogen

If you were to put 2 Ethanol molecules next to each other, they would have 3 types of intermolecular forces bonding them together. The first force would be London Dispersion. This happens between all molecules, no matter what (see below). The second force would be Dipole Dipole (see below). Because Ethanol is a polar molecule, it has positive and negative ends. This allows itself to bond to other Ethanol molecules, as seen by the dotted line above. The third and strongest intermolecular force would be the Hydrogen bond between H and O (see below).




London Dispersion- The weakest of the 3 listed intermolecular forces, this attraction takes place between every molecule. The attraction is caused by the exchange of electrons between molecules.


Dipole Dipole- This attraction, shown by the dotted line, is the positive end (Hydrogen) of a dipole being attracted to the negative end (Oxygen) of another dipole. 


Hydrogen Bonding- The strongest bond of the three, it takes place between a Hydrogen and the F, N, or O of another molecule. This bond is shown by the full line above.

Electronegativity of Ethanol

  

Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen 

C2H6O, also known as Ethanol, is a polar molecule. You can see this from the 1st diagram, there is no clear line of symmetry. As you look at the 2nd diagram, you see the electronegativity of it’s atoms. The arrows point from the atoms with less electronegativity  to the atoms with the higher electronegativity. As you can see, there are 3 Hydrogen atoms pointing to Carbon, 2 Hydrogen atoms pointing to the other Carbon, and a Carbon and Hydrogen atom pointing to the Oxygen atom. These arrows are simply depicting the electronegativity values within the molecule. Oxygen has an electronegativity value of 3.5 so Carbon, 2.5, and Hydrogen, 2.2, point to it. That is also why Hydrogen points to Carbon.