Propene on Titan

 Titan, one of Saturn's moons, is very special. It is the only satellite in our solar system that has a fully developed atmosphere.
Hydrocarbons were first detected in the atmosphere of Titan by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft way back in 1980. Titan's atmosphere is made up of 98.4% nitrogen gas and 1.4% methane. Sunlight breaks this methane apart and the fragments then link up to form chains with 2, 3 or more carbon atoms in the chain. Voyager found the presence of propane and propyne, but not propene.

More recently, NASA's Cassini spacecraft's mass spectrometer data suggested that propene might be present in Titan's upper atmosphere, and in 2013, using a form of infrared spectroscopy, propene was indeed found in Titan's atmosphere.

On planet Earth, propene is second only to ethene as a starting product in the petrochemical industry. About two thirds of all the propene produced is used to make the plastic known as polypropene, or polypropylene, which is used widely in packaging materials.

Reference:
C. A. Nixon, D. E. Jennings, B. Bézard, S. Vinatier, N. A. Teanby, K. Sung, T. M. Ansty, P. G. J. Irwin, N. Gorius, V. Cottini, A. Coustenis, F. M. Flasar. DETECTION OF PROPENE IN TITAN'S STRATOSPHERE. The Astrophysical Journal, 2013; 776 (1): L14 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/776/1/L14

Further Reading
http://ausetute.com.au/namctut1.html
http://ausetute.com.au/namsanes.html
http://ausetute.com.au/namsenes.html
http://ausetute.com.au/namsynes.html
http://ausetute.com.au/members/polymers.html
http://ausetute.com.au/members/polythen.html

Suggested Study Questions:

1. What is meant by the term "hydrocarbon"?
2. Give the molecular formula for each of the following hydrocarbons:
   • methane
   • ethane
   • ethene
   • ethyne
   • propane
   • propene
   • propyne
3. Give the structural formula for each of the following hydrocarbons:
   • methane
   • ethane
   • ethene
   • ethyne
   • propane
   • propene
   • propyne 
4. Propene is used to produce polypropene (polypropylene). Draw a representative section of polypropene.
5. Would you describe the polymerisation of propene as an addition polymerisation or as a condensation polymerisation? Explain your answer.
6. Ethene is used to produce polythene or polyethylene. Draw a representative section of polythene.
7. Would you describe the polymerisation of ethene as an addition polymerisation of as a condensation polymerisation? Explain your answer.
8. Both ethene and propene have been found in Titan's atmosphere. Do you think it is likely that polythene and polypropylene will be found in Titan's atmosphere? Explain your answer.

Producing Organic Compounds from Bip-oils

Many chemical feedstocks such as ethene and propene, the building blocks of many plastics, as well as aromatic compounds such as benzene and toluene used in dyes and plastics, are currently produced from petroleum.
University of Massachusetts Amherst scientists have reported that they have developed a way to produce these feedstocks from pyrolytic bio-oils, the cheapest liquid fuels available today derived from biomass. These pyrolytic bio-oils can be made from non-food agricultural crops and woody biomass.
The two-step, integrated catalytic approach starts with a "tunable", variable-reaction hydrogenation stage followed by a second, zeolite catalytic step. The zeolite catalyst has the proper pore structure and active sites to convert biomass-based molecules into aromatic hydrocarbons and alkenes.

Journal Reference
Tushar P. Vispute, Huiyan Zhang, Aimaro Sanna, Rui Xiao, and George W. Huber. Renewable Chemical Commodity Feedstocks from Integrated Catalytic Processing of Pyrolysis Oils. Science, 26 November 2010: 1222-1227 DOI: 10.1126/science.1194218

Further Reading
Nomenclature of Carbon Compounds
Naming Simple Alkenes
Ethene: properties, production and uses
Polythene: properties, production and uses
Polymers and Polymerization

Study Questions

1. Give the molecular formula and structural formula for ethene.
2. Give the molecular formula and structural formula for propene.
3. Give the molecular formula and structural formula for benzene.
4. Give the molecular formula and structural formula for toluene.
5. What is meant when an organic chemist refers to hydrogenation?
6. What is meant by the term pyrolytic?
   
7. Write an equation for the hydrogenation of ethene.
8. Write an equation for the hydrogenation of propene.
9. Why is benzene classed as an aromatic compound and not as an alkene?