Consider the physical properties of various organic compounds. Explain why alcoh
ID: 1050715 • Letter: C
Question
Consider the physical properties of various organic compounds. Explain why alcohols, ketones and aldehydes are all relatively water soluble. The boiling point of butane is 0 degree C, that of 1-propylamine is 48 degree C, and that of 1-propanol is 97 degree C. Explain this trend in terms of intermolecular forces. Methanol, ethanol and propanol are miscible with water, but longer alcohols are only partially soluble in water, for example, 1-hexanol's solubility is 5.9 g/L in water. Explain this difference in the behavior of alcohols.Explanation / Answer
a) Aldehydes, ketones and alcohols are weakly polar molecules and can form hydrogen bonds with water thus they are soluble in water.
b) The boiling point of butane is very low due to weak intermolecular forces (vanderwaal forces) while propylamine and propanol forms hydrogen bonds and possess strong intermolecular forces thus they have higher boling points than butane.
Furthermore, the boiling point of propanol is higher than propanamine due to the presence of strong hydrogen bonds between propanol molecules due to large electronegitivity difference between O-H bond.
3) The solubility of alcohols in water decreases as the number of carbon atoms increases due to increase in non-poalr nature and decrease in polar nature. Thus loer alcohols are highly soluble while higher alcohols are feebly soluble.
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