Alcohols
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This is probably going to have a really obvious answer but I’m really confused about how you know whether an alcohol such as C6H5CH2OH is primary, secondary or tertiary. I can't work out how to draw it. I know how you work out alcohols such as CH3CH2CH(OH)CH2CH3, etc.
Igloo writes ...
C6H5CH2OH is known as phenylmethanol (formerly known as benzyl alcohol).
You can see that the red carbon atom (the one holding the hydroxyl group) is joined to one of the carbon atoms (coloured blue) in the ring. So this means that phenylmethanol is a primary alcohol. Incidentally, since it is classified as being primary, this means that phenylmethanol can be oxidised to an aldehyde, and eventually to an acid, on treatment with acidified sodium dichromate solution. Try to draw structures for the aldehyde and acid, based on the diagram above.
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updated: 25 January 2006
