MolDraw › Templates › Reaction setups › Cracking liquid paraffin
Reaction setupsPremium
Cracking liquid paraffin template
Premium template. Preview and edit it free in MolDraw; downloading and exporting it is part of MolDraw Pro.
GCSE / high school (CBSE): mineral wool soaked in liquid paraffin at the closed end of a clamped boiling tube, porcelain chips heated strongly, and the gas collected over water in test tubes.
What the template shows
- Break long-chain alkanes into shorter alkanes and alkenes over a hot catalyst
- Mineral wool
- Soaked in liquid paraffin; warm it now and then so the vapour passes over the chips
- Porcelain chips
- Catalyst (or aluminium oxide); heat them strongly
- Bunsen burner
- Boiling tube clamped level, near the mouth
- Test tubes of gas
- Discard the first (air). Alkenes turn orange bromine water colourless, e.g. C₁₀H₂₂ → C₈H₁₈ + C₂H₄
- Suck-back
- Lift the delivery tube out of the water before you stop heating, or cold water is drawn into the hot tube and cracks it
- Reaction setup
Drawn with 20 shapes – every one editable in MolDraw.
Sources
How to use this template
- Press Edit in MolDraw. The template opens on the canvas of the free MolDraw editor.
- Change anything: move structures, edit atoms and labels, recolour highlights or delete what you do not need.
- Add your own structures, arrows and text next to it, or combine several templates on one page.
- Export the drawing as PNG, SVG or PDF for slides, worksheets, theses and papers.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Cracking liquid paraffin template free?
You can preview the Cracking liquid paraffin template here and open and edit it in MolDraw for free. Downloading or exporting it is part of MolDraw Pro, together with the other premium templates.
Can I edit the Cracking liquid paraffin template?
Yes. It opens as an ordinary MolDraw drawing, so every structure, arrow, label and colour can be changed, and you can add your own content around it.
Is the chemistry checked?
Every structure is checked with RDKit and every curly arrow passes MolDraw’s electron-flow audit. The sources used are listed on this page.
Can I edit the glassware?
Yes. Every piece of glassware is a MolDraw apparatus object: move, resize, recolour the liquid or swap a piece and the joints stay connected.