Alcohols
Read our general notes on Risk Assessment
Sorted FAQs on Alcohols
This topic has attracted a lot of questions to React over the years. To help you find the ones of most interest to you more easily, whether they are about background theory or a particular experiment, we have sorted the FAQs under several headings below, with a direct link to each question and answer.
List of headings - some FAQs may appear under more than one heading:
1. Structure, type and nomenclature
•Benzyl alcohol - primary, secondary or tertiary?
•Structure of product of linalool + sodium
•Structures of alcohols derived from butane
•Structures of stereoisomers of pent-3-en-2-ol?
•Nomenclature of diols and triols
2. Combustion
•Finding heats of combustion
•Relationship between heats of combustion and structure
•Difference between theoretical and experimental values
•Values of heats of combustion for C1 - 3 alcohols?
•Why are experimental values lower?
3. Oxidation
•Meaning of 'reflux'?
•Why dichromate added to alcohol and not vice versa?
•Classification of reagents
4. Substitution
•Why is -OH a bad leaving group?
•Why is conc. H2SO4 + KBr used instead of HBr?
•Steps in the nucleophilic attack of an alcohol on a carboxylic acid?
•Preparation of 2-chloro-2-methylpropane
5. Dehydration
•Mechanism for butan-2-ol?
•Reasons for low yield?
•Use in chemistry?
•Dehydration: cyclohexanol to cyclohexene - method?
•Dehydration: need to know?
6. Tests
•Iodoform test - observations with 3 alcohols?
•Test other than dichromate negative for tertiary alcohols?
•To distinguish types of alcohols?
•Distinguishing between secondary and tertiary
•Ester vs alcohol?
•Alcohol vs carboxylic acid?
•Alcohol vs carboxylic acid - does PCl5 react with both?
•Iodoform test on sec and tert alcohols?
•Do alcohols give a positive Benedict's test?
•Chemical test for an alcohol?
•Primary vs tertiary alcohol?
•Distinguishing between an alcohol, alkene and alkane?
•Use of PCl5 to distinguish alcohols
•Distinguishing between ethanol and methanol
7. Miscellaneous
•pH of pure ethanol?
•Alcohol determination: in fermented starch
•Reduction of methanol - why not?
•pH of alcohols, esters etc?
•Connection between wine and vinegar?
•Alcohols from amines?
•Converting alcohols to alkanes?
•Extraction of eugenol
•How do I write the structural formula for sodium propoxide?
•Mixture of alcohols - which is the solvent?
•Why Na not used for drying ethanol?
•Esterification: mechanism details
8. Wine analysis
•Addition of acid in titration
•Distillation vs back titration
•Source of alcohol content in titration?
•Relationship between alcohol content and acidity?
•Making up indicator for dichromate titration?
•Other suitable indicators for dichromate titration?
•Theory behind dichromate back titration?
•Less hazardous alternative to dichromate?
•Why does wine need to be distilled?
•Why made alkaline before distillation?
•Effect of amount of silver nitrate on dichromate titration?
•Dichromate titration - standardisation of iron(II) sulphate?
•How does oxidation of wine occur?
•Indicator end-point for dichromate titration?
•Stability of 1,1-diols
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updated: 08 August 2008
