Carbon and Its Inorganic Compounds

The allotropes of carbon and how their structures explain their properties and uses; the reactions of carbon; carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, how they are prepared, tested and used; carbonates and hydrogencarbonates and the hardness of water; and the carbon cycle and the environmental effects of the carbon oxides.

2

Nitrogen and Its Inorganic Compounds

How nitrogen is obtained and prepared, and why it is so unreactive; ammonia, its laboratory preparation, properties and manufacture by the Haber process; nitric acid and nitrogen dioxide; nitrates and nitrogen fertilisers; and the environmental effects of nitrogen dioxide and of fertilisers.

3

Sulphur and Its Inorganic Compounds

Where sulfur is found, its allotropes, properties and uses; the laboratory preparation, properties and tests of sulfur dioxide; sulfuric acid, its manufacture by the Contact process and the properties of the dilute and concentrated acid; tests for sulfates, sulfites and sulfur dioxide; and the environmental effects of sulfur oxides.

4

Chlorine and Its Inorganic Compounds

How chlorine is prepared, collected and tested; its physical and chemical properties and its uses, including water treatment and bleach; hydrogen chloride and hydrochloric acid and their reactions; sodium chloride; tests for chloride and the other halide ions; and the health and environmental hazards of chlorine and its compounds.

5

Rate of Chemical Reactions

What the rate of a reaction is and how to measure it from gas volume, mass loss or a disappearing cross; reading average and instantaneous rates from graphs; collision theory and activation energy; and how temperature, concentration, pressure, particle size, catalysts and light change the speed of a reaction, with their uses in industry and at home.

6

Concentration of Solutions

How much solute a solution holds: molarity in mol dm⁻³, mass concentration in g dm⁻³, and percentage by mass and by volume; making standard solutions from a solid and by dilution; and acid–alkali titrations of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate with hydrochloric acid, with the end point, the equivalence point and the calculations that follow.

7

Electrolysis and Its Applications

How a direct current decomposes molten and dissolved ionic compounds; what forms at the anode and cathode with inert and active electrodes, for molten sodium chloride, acidified water, dilute and concentrated sodium chloride solution and copper(II) sulfate; half-equations; the quantity of electricity and the Faraday constant; and electroplating, refining copper, extracting aluminium and sodium, and making chlorine, hydrogen, oxygen and sodium hydroxide.

8

Introduction to Organic Chemistry

What organic chemistry is and where organic compounds come from; why carbon forms so many compounds; how organic and inorganic compounds differ; homologous series, general formulae and functional groups; naming simple compounds by IUPAC rules and drawing their structures; and the uses of organic chemistry in fuels, food, medicines and materials.

9

Alkanes

What alkanes are; their general formula and the names of the first ten; how to write and draw them; structural isomerism up to five carbons and how branched alkanes are named; physical properties and how they change along the series; combustion and substitution with halogens; the laboratory preparation of methane; and the uses of alkanes as fuels and raw materials.

10

Alkenes and Alkynes

Alkenes and alkynes, the unsaturated hydrocarbons: the C=C and C≡C bonds and the shapes they give; general formulas, IUPAC names and structural isomerism; physical properties; addition of hydrogen, halogens, hydrogen halides and water, the bromine water and manganate(VII) tests, and polymerisation; making ethene from ethanol and ethyne from calcium carbide; telling alkanes, alkenes and alkynes apart; and the uses of alkenes and alkynes.

Units