Organic Compounds - Limit to the C-C chain length?

 

Is there a limit to the longest possible C-C chanin? Would it be possible to make a C-C chain made up of all the Carbon atoms in the universe?

 

Its actually pretty mad when you think about - these chanins can be messive, millions of Carbons lond so my question is, is there an actuall limit to this or cna it just go on and on and on...

 

If it would become unstable at a point then I bet it would have to be a huge number of Carbon atoms anyway!

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

There are different ways for polymer chains to terminate after it grows (such as the natural process called [math]\beta-hydride[/math] elimination. The termination for polymer chains are quite random during polymerization, and this causes a polymer to be able to have polymer chains of various lengths.

And also, it was a very thin chain, say only a few hunder atoms wide, then it would be really easy to break mechanically so it probably wouldnt stay toghther as a super long chain.

I just found this. Organic compounds not only have giant structures but gigantic names to go with them. And I mean GIGANTIC. Look at this word I found in wikisource:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Methionylthreonylthreonyl...isoleucine

Of course, there are even longer ones. DNA can have WAY more letters in its written form.

I just found this. Organic compounds not only have giant structures but gigantic names to go with them. And I mean GIGANTIC. Look at this word I found in wikisource:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Methionylthreonylthreonyl...isoleucine

Of course' date=' there are even longer ones. DNA can have WAY more letters in its written form.[/quote']

 

 

Thats a big name, glad I don't have to remember it for any exams!

 

I'd like to see DNA written in form, it would be a pretty huge word... I mean thats huge but I can't even imaging how big [acr=Deoxyribonucleic acid]D.N.A[/acr] would be...

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

i think is well over a billion letters for DNA

There is no theoretical limit on the length of C-C chains. Real-life compounds, such as certain plastics and resins can have chains with lengths of many millions or even billions. The limits are of a practical nature. Every compound, made by humans, even the purest ones, has defects, such as impurities, irregularities in the crystal lattice. This is not different for long polymeric chains and hence in practice, the length is limited.

There is no theoretical limit on the length of C-C chains. Real-life compounds, such as certain plastics and resins can have chains with lengths of many millions or even billions. The limits are of a practical nature. Every compound, made by humans, even the purest ones, has defects, such as impurities, irregularities in the crystal lattice. This is not different for long polymeric chains and hence in practice, the length is limited.

 

Ah, right I see. Those defects over a long length can cause the structure to break down - seems logical So there is a limit imposed by nature (Defects) but the actual length of the chain would otherwise have no limits? Right - got it! Thanks all

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

dna is pretty damn long

 

i'm sure as they get into the billions of atoms long, they get pretty brittle. and i imagine if they got a few inches long you could snap one.... but could you???????????? that would be breaking a bond with out a chemical...!!!!!!! but wouldn't that cause a big explosion???????????????????????????????????????????

IIRC, a single strand of DNA in a human chromosome can reach lengths of some 5 centimeters.

A big explsoin would be from breaking many bonds at the basically the same time.

IIRC, a single strand of DNA in a human chromosome can reach lengths of some 5 centimeters.

 

That big? Thats an impressive length. If you take all those chromosomes from every cell in every person, plant etc. you would have a huge chain!

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones