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cracking

Process breaking down complex organic molecules into simpler ones

Entitychemical process industrial processQ212749

Also known as chemical cracking · hydrocarbon cracking · cracking of chemicals · cracking of hydrocarbons

Instance of: chemical process
, industrial process
Subclass of: chemical decomposition
1
Sources
1.goldbook.iupac.org/html/C/C01387.htmlRetrieved 2019-12-02
View statement on Wikidata ↗
, bond cleavage

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

In petrochemistry, petroleum geology and organic chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or long-chain hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking of carbon–carbon bonds in the precursors. The rate of cracking and the end products are strongly dependent on the temperature and presence of catalysts. Cracking is the breakdown of large hydrocarbons into smaller, more useful alkanes and alkenes. Simply put, hydrocarbon cracking is the process of breaking long-chain hydrocarbons into short ones. This process requires high temperatures.

Overview

All data

27 statements · 33% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Partially coincident with: thermal decomposition
Studied by: petrochemistry
organic chemistry
Different from: software cracking

On other databases

18 identifiers linking cracking across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

33%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 12, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). cracking (Q212749). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/cracking-Q212749