Ok everybody, I have an assignment due for chemistry really soon about the combustion of gasoline. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that the general formula for Gasoline is C8H18. When it reacts with O2 in a combustion reaction it produces CO2, Water, and CO. How does it produce CO? I know that water and carbon dioxide are the standard products for any combustion involving an organic molecule, so where does the CO come from. Is it because it doesn't burn all the way? Anyone with even just an inkling of knowledge on this subject, please respond. (Links are welcome as well)

 

Thanks

Gasoline isn't pure octane. That's why there's different octane ratings (87, 89, 93).

It produces CO because when there is insufficient oxygen to make CO2, it makes CO instead.

To add on to that, it is called incomplete combustion

A Pt catalytic convertor will however convert this back into CO2

so THAT'S what it does! I was wondering. Someone told me that it gets rid of nitrogen dioxide and that sort of stuff!

ed84c said in post # :

A Pt catalytic convertor will however convert this back into CO2

 

no it doesnt

how could it without needing to me emptied of carbon every 100 yards or so? it is indeed for the NOx gasses.

ed84c said in post # :

A Pt catalytic convertor will however convert this back into CO2

 

Now i will need to erase my whole memory!

A Pt catalytic convertor will however convert this back into CO2

I thought this helped create a power to an extent, kind of like Nitrous Oxide, for flat track cars?!??!

wait, where do the oxides of nitrogen come from? i know there is the dioxide of sulfur...

The heat and pressure inside the engine cause atmospheric nitrogen to oxidize inside the engine. Also, the fuel being burned isn't pure hydrocarbon. Their are various nitrogen containing compounds in there which wind up turning into the nitrogen oxides.

so N2+O2-->2NO, which oxidizes immediately to NO2/N2O4 with the majority as N2O4.

out of curiosity, do you know what the SO2 comes from? surely not S(s) or H2S...

SO2 again comes from sulfur in the fuels. There are a lot of sulfur containing organic compounds in petrol and gasoline, so they wind up being included in our engine fuel and when burned they form the sulfur dioxide.