Fossil fuels provide both energy and raw materials such as ethylene, for the production of other substances
Students learn to:
- construct word and balanced formulae equations of chemical reactions as they are encountered
- identify the industrial source of ethylene from the cracking of some of the fractions from the refining of petroleum
- identify that ethylene, because of the high reactivity of its double bond, is readily transformed into many useful products
- identify that ethylene serves as a monomer from which polymers are made
- identify polyethylene as an addition polymer and explain the meaning of this term
- outline the steps in the production of polyethylene as an example of a commercially and industrially important polymer
- identify the following as commercially significant monomers:
- describe the uses of the polymers made from the above monomers in terms of their properties
Students:
- gather and present information from first-hand or secondary sources to write equations to represent all chemical reactions encountered in the HSC course
- identify data, plan and perform a first-hand investigation to compare the reactivities of appropriate alkenes with the corresponding alkanes in bromine water
- analyse information from secondary sources such as computer simulations, molecular model kits or multimedia resources to model the polymerisation process
Extract from Chemistry Stage 6 Syllabus (Amended October 2002). © 2009, Board of Studies NSW.