Talk:Pentane

Untitled

The link to fluid properties in webbook.nist.gov/chemistry should be made. Comments on colour, odor and provenance should also be made. Common uses as well as history.

Add a link to the korean physical properties database and comment on the differences between n-pentane, isopentane and cyclopentane.

Poor ole pentane

Trying to think of something to say about this drab little molecule.

• from the comments above - pentane has only the faintest odor, possibly that is due to trace impurities?
• It probably undergoes dehydrocyclization in refineries.
• It would also be nice to know the C5 content in crude oils as well as typical petroleum fractions, e.g. gasolines.
• Pentanes are purification from NaK?
• isopentane makes a glass at low T, I have heard.
• neopentane can be viewed as an expanded form of methane, whereby each of the four H's are replaced by Me. I guess that next generation in such bare-bones dendrimers, i.e. C(CMe3)4 would be too crowded.
• regiochem of free radical chlorination would be worth while?
• butane is convertable via VOPO4/O2 into maleic anhydride, I think, but I dont know if pentane does that.

--Smokefoot 22:50, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

We could do with a hand from synthetic organic colleagues here: why would anyone choose to use pentane in the lab? Physchim62 (talk) 11:57, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Where I am, ambient temperature is ~ 30 °C so we usually use hexane. But we had some exchange people from Germany who liked to use it instead of hexane for usual laboratory tasks like wiping ground glass joints to remove grease. I've used it (following a literature procedure) for liquid-liquid extraction before, but that's about it. --Rifleman 82 09:16, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I have heard a really strange tale that hexane is converted to hexane dicarboxylic acid in the body and due to its length it is incorporated into the DNA and because of this better use pentane or cyclohexane in the lab. I do n ot belive it and I also found no proof of it in any article, but some people belive this.

Lower boiling point maks it convenient if you extract something with a low boiling point. And it is better for deep temperature mixtures than hexane.--Stone 12:34, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Functional

The words "unfunctionalized" and "functionality" are used in the section on Uses, and the latter is linked, but the link doesn't give you any information about the use of functionality in the context of hydrocarbons.

wellsoberlin 20:01, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

disambiguated to functional group, and also added the link to the function page (might need a bit of a rewrite of the definition on the latter). Hope this helps, and cheers for bringing this to our attention. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 20:08, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Pentane is any isomer or just n-pentane?

"Pentane is any or one of the organic compounds with the formula C5H12."

Is it so? I think pentane usually refers to n-pentane.--Abhishek Jacob (talk) 11:36, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

I suppose that is true in IUPAC-speaking labs, but is it true in the industry? Before IUPAC all C5H12 alkanes were called "pentanes", isn't that so? am no chemist, but that is what I recall from my high school org chem classes... All the best, --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 16:05, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Pentane is used in heat pipes for thermal control of spacecraft

Source: none at the moment, there was an article on NASA's web site I have read recently. 212.188.108.213 (talk) 19:39, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

Undoing changes based on "probably true"?

I am very surprised about user Smokefoot undoing my changes - especially stating that he undid them as they were added because they are "probably" true. Does anyone want to challenge that pentanes (like other hydrocarbons) are largely unreactive? Also hydrocarbons do no do chlorination reaction with themselves, so what is this "with" in "as with other hydrocarbons"? And can someone please bring a source for pentane being used as feedstock (not "substrate" in any case!) for maleic anhydride if this is what the article wants to claim ? 109.154.5.169 (talk) 10:39, 15 July 2012 (UTC). Sorry, had forgotten to log in. It is me: Jaeljojo (talk) 10:44, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Hi thanks for the note. I am sympathetic to the gist of your concerns and welcome your skeptical reading of the chemistry articles. All sorts of weird cruft ends up in those articles. You are correct that hydrocarbons are pretty unreactive, but combustion is of course a major exception. In fact, I think that most maleic anhydride is made by partial combustion (they dont use that term) of butane over vanadium oxides. The highly dehydrogenated ring is presumably less susceptible to further oxidation (although of course it will burn nicely, its just a matter of relative rate). Following this logic, it is entirely plausible, knowing chemical industry's frugalness, that they throw all sorts of hydrocarbons into the feed, knowing that pentanes will get chopped down to maleic. I dont have a source, but the process is very plausible and the lesson of useful partial oxidation is pretty instructive. Thanks and I hope that you continue to patrol these pages! --Smokefoot (talk) 14:04, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your kind note (noticed mine was kind of too strong, sorry). When talking about "unreactive", I believe it is common understanding that combustion is excluded, would you not agree? Considering the uses of pentane (solvents) as well as its origin (in oil and gas) I guess it is almost vital for it to be unreactive, otherwise it would either not exist (because it has reacted away) or would have no use (who wants solvents that react with the medium?). So I would like to put "unreactive". About maleic anhydride, yes, there might be the odd chance to get some MMA if you throw in pentane, but why would you do it? One gave up the benzene route as the costs are too high (as you basically sacrifice two carbons) so why would one do the route via pentane? Also given the much higher costs of pentane as opposed to butane, why would one do it? So also here, I would like to keep my changes. How do you see it? Jaeljojo (talk) 14:53, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

"When talking about "unreactive", I believe it is common understanding that combustion is excluded," Could be changed to "When talking about "unreactive", it is common MISunderstanding (or delusion) that partial combustion is excluded, " Partial oxidation (combustion, if you will) is super huge. So it is critical that we not allow readers to suffer from delusional prejudices on how chemical transformations are conducted in the real world. As to why industry would include pentane in the feed, the question is why clean up the feed to such a degree as to exclude pentane. They are probably just burning a waste stream in many cases (not that I really know first hand). But then I didnt insert the comment, although I thought that it had a salutary effect. But your instincts are probably more in tune with other earthlings, so kill it off. Thanks for the conversation.

done. Thanks for the discussion. Jaeljojo (talk) 20:55, 15 July 2012 (UTC)