Week 3.1 - Stoichiometric Combustion Calculator

Aim: To find the stoichiometric coefficient 'ar' and find the relation between the number of carbon atoms 'n' and the stoichiometric coefficient 'ar' for alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes.

Problem-solving methodology:

Relations between the number of carbon atoms 'n', stoichiometric coeff 'ar', hydrogen atoms 'a', oxygen atoms 'b', and nitrogen atoms 'c' is found by balancing the number of atoms on the left and right-hand sides of the equation. This balancing process is done similarly for alkene and alkyne .

For alkene : ar = 3n/2

For alkyne : ar = 3n-1/2

Matlab code:

main code:

% to find the relation between the stoichiometric coeff 'ar' and number of
% carbon atoms 'n'

n=linspace(4,10,7)

for l=n(1):n(end)

% To calculate the stoichiometric coeff using function 'stoich'

[ar1]=stoich(n)

a1=n;
b1=n+1;
c1=(7.5*ar1)/2;



%Alkene


% To calculate the stoichiometric coeff directly

[ar2]=1.5*n;

a2=n;
b2=n;
c2=3.76*ar2;


%alkyne

% To calculate the stoichiometric coeff directly

ar3=(3*n-1)/2;

a3=n;
b3=n-1;
c3=3.76*ar3;


end

%plotting
plot(ar1,n,'Color','b');
hold on
plot(ar2,n,'Color','g');
plot(ar3,n,'Color','r');
xlabel('number of carbon atoms');
ylabel('stoichimetric coefficient');
legend('alkane','alkene','alkyne');

function code:

% function to find the stoichiometric coeff 'ar' 

function ar=stoich(n)

ar=(3*n+1)/2;

end

Explanation of the code :

1. First, an array of the number of Carbon atoms is created using linspace cmd.

2. Then, the stoichiometric coeff ar is calculated using the above-mentioned relations for alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes.

3. The stoichiometric coefficient data is stored in ar1, ar2, and ar3 arrays respectively.

4. The stoichiometric coefficients ar1,ar2, and ar3 are plotted as a function of the number of carbon atoms i.e, stoichiometric Coeff on the y-axis and number of carbon atoms on the x-axis.

Plot :

stoichiometric coefficient vs number of carbon atoms