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Isoprene Is A Common Synonym For The Chemical Compound 2-Methyl-1,3-Butadiene. It Is

Isoprene is a colorless liquid that is highly flammable and reactive. It is commonly used industrially, including in the production of synthetic rubber. Isoprene is also important biologically as the monomer of natural rubber and can be hazardous in large quantities. Natural rubber is a polymer of the monomer isoprene, which gives it elastic properties.

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54 views3 pages

Isoprene Is A Common Synonym For The Chemical Compound 2-Methyl-1,3-Butadiene. It Is

Isoprene is a colorless liquid that is highly flammable and reactive. It is commonly used industrially, including in the production of synthetic rubber. Isoprene is also important biologically as the monomer of natural rubber and can be hazardous in large quantities. Natural rubber is a polymer of the monomer isoprene, which gives it elastic properties.

Uploaded by

Jay Barnedo
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Isoprene is a common synonym for the chemical compound 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene.

It is
commonly used in industry, is an important biological material, and can be a harmful
environmental pollutant and toxicant when present in excess quantities.

At room temperature, isoprene is a colorless liquid which is highly flammable and easily ignited.
It can form explosive mixtures in air and is highly reactive, capable of polymerizing explosively
when heated. The United States Department of Transportation considers isoprene a hazardous
material and requires special marking, labeling, and transportation for it.

It is most readily available industrially as a by-product of the thermal cracking of naphtha or oil.
About 95% of isoprene production is used to produce cis-1,4-polyisoprene - a synthetic version
of natural rubber.

Natural rubber is a polymer of isoprene - most often cis-1,4-polyisoprene - with a molecular


weight of 100,000 to 1,000,000. Typically, a few percent of other materials, such as proteins,
fatty acids, resins and inorganic materials are found in high quality natural rubber.

Some natural rubber sources are composed of trans-1,4-polyisoprene, a structural isomer which
has similar, but not identical properties.

Isoprene Chemical name 2-Methyl-1,3-butadiene

Chemical formulaC5H8

Molecular mass68.11 g/mol

Density0.681 g/ml

Melting point-145.95 °C

Boiling point34.067 °C

CAS number78-79-5

SMILESCC(=C)C=C

Isoprene Molecular Structure


isoprene unit
(organic chemistry) The five-carbon structural unit characteristic of terpenes. Also known as
isopentyl unit.

Beta-carotene is the molecule that gives carrots their orange color. It is part of a family of
chemicals called the carotenoids, which are found in many fruit and vegetables, as well as some
animal products such as egg yolks. Carotenoids were first isolated in the early 19th century, and
have been synthesized for use as food colorings since the 1950s. Biologically, beta-carotene is
most important as the precursor of vitamin A. It also has antioxidant properties and may help in
preventing cancer and other diseases although much controversy continues in this area (see
below

Carotene= The term carotene is used for several related substances


having the formula C40Hx, which are synthesized by plants but cannot be
made by animals. Carotene is an orange photosynthetic pigment
important for photosynthesis. Carotenes are responsible for the orange
colour of the carrot for which it is named, and many other fruits and
vegetables (for example, sweet potatoes and orange cantaloupe melon).
Carotenes are also responsible for the orange colours in dry foliage.
They also (in lower concentrations) impart the yellow colouration to
milk-fat and butter. Omnivorous animal species which are poor
converters of coloured dietary carotenoids to colourless retinoids, have
yellowed-coloured body fat as a result of the carotenoid retention. The
typical yellow-coloured fat of humans is a result of fat storage of
carotenes from their diets.

Carotenes contribute to photosynthesis by transmitting the light energy they absorb from
chlorophyll. They also protect plant tissues by helping to absorb the energy from singlet oxygen,
an excited form of the oxygen molecule O2 which is formed during photosynthesis.

Chemically, carotene is a terpene, synthesized biochemically from eight isoprene units. It comes
in two primary forms designated by characters from the Greek alphabet: alpha-carotene (α-
carotene) and beta-carotene (β-carotene). Gamma, delta, epsilon, and zeta (γ, δ, ε, and ζ-
carotene) also exist. Since they are hydrocarbons, and therefore contain no oxygen, carotenes are
fat-soluble and insoluble in water (in contrast with other carotenoids, the xanthophylls, which
contain oxygen and thus are less chemically hydrophobic).
β-Carotene is composed of two retinyl groups, and is broken down in the mucosa of the small
intestine by beta-carotene 15,15'-monooxygenase to retinal, a form of vitamin A. β-Carotene can
be stored in the liver and body fat and converted to retinal as needed, thus making it a form of
vitamin A for humans and some other mammals. The carotenes α-carotene and γ-carotene, due to
their single retinyl group (beta-ionone ring), also have some vitamin A activity (though less than
β-carotene), as does the xanthophyll carotenoid β-cryptoxanthin. All other carotenoids, including
lycopene, have no beta-ring and thus no vitamin A activity (although they may have antioxidant
activity and thus biological activity in other ways).

Animal species differ greatly in their ability to convert retinyl (beta-ionone) containing
carotenoids to retinals. Carnivores in general are poor converters of dietary ionine-containg
carotenoids, and pure carnivores such as cats and ferets lack beta-carotene 15,15'-
monooxygenase and cannot convert any carotenoids to retinals at all (resulting in carotenes not
being a form of vitamin A for these species).

β-Carotene represented by a 3-dimensional stick diagram

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