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Ch.12 - Solids and Modern Materials
Chapter 12, Problem 129c

(c) Employing the values of average bond enthalpy in Table 8.3, estimate the overall enthalpy change for converting PVC to diamond.
Table showing average bond energies for various chemical bonds in kJ/mol.

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Identify the bonds present in PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and diamond. PVC primarily consists of C-C, C-H, and C-Cl bonds, while diamond is composed entirely of C-C bonds.
Determine the number of each type of bond that will be broken in PVC. For simplicity, consider a repeating unit of PVC, which includes C-C, C-H, and C-Cl bonds.
Calculate the total energy required to break all the bonds in PVC using the bond energies from the table. Sum the energies for each type of bond broken: C-C, C-H, and C-Cl.
Determine the number of C-C bonds that will be formed in diamond. Since diamond is a network of C-C bonds, calculate the energy released by forming these bonds using the bond energy for C-C from the table.
Estimate the overall enthalpy change by subtracting the total energy of bonds formed in diamond from the total energy of bonds broken in PVC. This will give you the enthalpy change for the conversion of PVC to diamond.

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Key Concepts

Here are the essential concepts you must grasp in order to answer the question correctly.

Bond Enthalpy

Bond enthalpy, or bond energy, is the amount of energy required to break one mole of a specific type of bond in a gaseous substance. It is a measure of the strength of a bond; higher bond enthalpy indicates a stronger bond. In the context of chemical reactions, bond enthalpies can be used to estimate the overall enthalpy change by calculating the energy required to break bonds in reactants and the energy released when forming bonds in products.
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Enthalpy Change in Reactions

The enthalpy change (ΔH) in a chemical reaction is the difference in total energy between the products and reactants. It can be calculated using the formula ΔH = Σ(Bond Energies of Reactants) - Σ(Bond Energies of Products). This concept is crucial for understanding how energy is absorbed or released during a reaction, which is essential for estimating the enthalpy change when converting substances like PVC to diamond.
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Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and Diamond Structure

PVC is a synthetic polymer made of repeating vinyl chloride units, characterized by carbon-chlorine bonds. In contrast, diamond is a crystalline form of carbon where each carbon atom is tetrahedrally bonded to four other carbon atoms, resulting in a very strong and stable structure. Understanding the structural differences between PVC and diamond is important for estimating the energy changes involved in converting one to the other, as it involves breaking and forming various types of bonds.
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Related Practice
Textbook Question

Although polyethylene can twist and turn in random ways, the most stable form is a linear one with the carbon backbone oriented as shown in the following figure:

The solid wedges in the figure indicate bonds from carbon that come out of the plane of the page; the dashed wedges indicate bonds that lie behind the plane of the page. (a) What is the hybridization of orbitals at each carbon atom? What angles do you expect between the bonds?

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Textbook Question

(a) In polyvinyl chloride shown in Table 12.6, which bonds have the lowest average bond enthalpy?

Textbook Question

(b) When subjected to high pressure and heated, polyvinyl chloride converts to diamond. During this transformation which bonds are most likely to break first?

Textbook Question

Silicon has the diamond structure with a unit cell edge length of 5.43 Å and eight atoms per unit cell. (a) How many silicon atoms are there in 1 cm3 of material?

Textbook Question

Silicon has the diamond structure with a unit cell edge length of 5.43 Å and eight atoms per unit cell. (b) Suppose you dope that 1 cm3 sample of silicon with 1 ppm of phosphorus that will increase the conductivity by a factor of a million. How many milligrams of phosphorus are required?

Textbook Question

One method to synthesize ionic solids is by the heating of two reactants at high temperatures. Consider the reaction of FeO with TiO2 to form FeTiO3. Determine the amount of each of the two reactants to prepare 2.500 g FeTiO3, assuming the reaction goes to completion. (a) Write a balanced chemical reaction. (c) Determine the moles of FeTiO3.