alcohols

• Secondary alcohol

  An alcohol in which the -OH group is attached to a carbon atom that is attached to two carbon chains and one hydrogen atom
• Tertiary alcohol

  An alcohol in which the -OH group is attached to a carbon atom that is attached to no hydrogen atoms.
• Primary alcohol

  An alcohol in which the -OH group is attached to a carbon atom that is attached to two or three hydrogen atoms.
• Dehydration

  An elimination reaction in which water is removed from a saturated molecule to make an unsaturated molecule
• if an alcohol has 2 -OH groups the suffix used is -diol
• volatility describes how readily a substance evaporates
• alcohols have a high bp than alkanes with the same number of carbons because it has a hydrogen bond
• alcohols have lower volatility than alkanes with the same number of carbon atoms
• as the hydrocarbon chain increases, influence of the -OH group becomes smaller, and the solubility decreases
• primary alcohol to alkene

  • dehydration
  • H3PO4 or H2SO4
  • heat
• primary alcohol to ester (esterification)

  • carboxylic acid / H2SO4
• primary alcohol to aldehyde

  • distillation
  • K2Cr2O7 / H2SO4