What makes water different than Ethanol, Methanol and Isopropanol in term of bei

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Why does water have a higher boiling point than ethanol? Elements and Compounds Questions Answers.com > Wiki Answers > Categories > Science > Chemistry > Elements and Compounds Best Answer Ethanol is made of an oxygen attached to a hydrogen and a group of carbons which looks like R-O-H where R represents the group of carbons. Water has two hydrogens attached to an oxygen so it looks like H-O-H. Remember only O-H and N-H bonds can have hydrogen bonds (a transient bond made between neighboring molecules), and the more hydrogen bonds you have, the more stable your collection of molecules. Water can create 2 hydrogen bonds for each water molecule whereas ethanol can only create 1 for each of its own molecules. Since water can create more hydrogen bonds, it takes much more energy to break water molecules apart compared to ethanol. More energy required translates to a higher boiling point. Water has a higher boiling point than many compounds because of hydrogen bonding. I said earlier N-H bonds create hydrogen bonds too, but the reason why water boils at higher temperatures is because water is more electronegative. This means oxygen likes electrons so much it will partially take them from neighboring hydrogens creating something called a dipole moment. This just means the oxygen carries a partial negative charge and the hydrogens carry a partial positive charge. This dipole moment is much bigger compared to that in any N-H bond so hydrogen bonds are weaker in N-H bonds than in O-H bonds.

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