Questions tagged [alcohols]
For questions about saturated and unsaturated alcohols, their physical properties, their reactions, etc. For questions about phenol, use the [phenols] tag instead.
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Rubbing alcohol gets warm after diluting with water
I've just diluted a 95% rubbing alcohol bottle with water to bring it down to 70%. However, the bottle got noticeably warmer after I did so. I've searched online and I couldn't find any exothermic ...
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What type of plastic (PET, HDPE etc.) is appropriate to store alcohol based hand sanitizer? [closed]
I’ve been tasked with distributing hand sanitizer to public safety staff from a bulk supply in gallon jugs. I need a portable squeeze bottle, but I’m having trouble determining what type of plastic (...
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How many hydrogen bonds can methanol make?
I believe that it can form 2 hydrogen bonds, one with oxygen and the other with hydrogen but a classmate said that oxygen can form 2 hydrogen bonds? Is this true? I can't find anything on google to ...
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Disubstituted cyclic alcohols - looking for IUPAC rule
Given a simple cyclic alcohol:
We can name it cyclopentanol and using cyclopentan-1-ol wouldn't be correct. When more than one ...
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Why does a proton prefer to attack a double bond instead of protonating an alcohol in a reaction of unsaturated alcohol with sulphuric acid?
A solved problem in Organic Chemistry by Solomons, Fryhle and Snyder asked to write the mechanism for the following transformation in the presence of sulphuric acid ($\ce{H2SO4}$):
The mechanism ...
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Adding an essential oil to WHO Handrub Formulation [closed]
I'm not a chemist, so I prefer to ask this question to some people, who definitely have knowledge in that area.
WHO Handrub Formulation is available here.
Ingridients: Ethanol 96%, Hydrogen peroxide ...
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Reactivity of different alcohols with NaNH2 and CH3I
Identify the final product (B) in the following reaction:
I'm not sure how $\ce{NaNH2}$ and $\ce{CH3I}$ will react with the different types of alcohol present here. According to my solution,ether was ...
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When I burn isopropyl alcohol (IPA), it burns orange. But when I burn ethyl alcohol, it burns totally blue. Why is this?
I burned them in a small aluminium tray. While IPA is burning orange, it produced the smell of soot, but while ethanol is burning blue there isn't any smell.
Also, ethanol made the tray really cold ...
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Cause of m/z = 56 peak in 4-methyl-1-pentanol
This is the mass spectrum for 4-methylpentan-1-ol:
From its structural formula, what could be the fragmentation which results in a peak at $m/z = 56?$
I was considering a few possibilities; could it ...
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What is the true caloric impact of Alcohol?
I've only had 1 year of basic Chemistry at school, so I am waay too uneducated to answer this question myself:
What is the true caloric impact of ingested alcohol (ethanol) in the human body?
Here ...
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Disinfectant production [closed]
One of my friends says that he made a disinfectant. These are the materials:
83% methanol
isopropyl alcohol
propylene glycol
and the others are: citral, geraniol, linalool, dlimonene, l alpha ...
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Which mechanism should a reaction between the cyclopentylmethanol and the HBr should follow?
I just thought that the reaction should follow $\mathrm{S_{N}2}$ mechanism this is because the alkyl halide is primary but the book says that the reaction will follow $\mathrm{S_{N}1}$ mechanism ...
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Solubility of alcohols in non-polar solvents
The solubility of an alcohol in a non-polar solvent (like hexane) increases with size of the alcohol, as the non-polar chain increases. However, as the chain keeps increasing, will the solubility ...
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Concentrating mixtures of volatile compounds
My interest is primarily food-related here but I think this is a fairly general chemistry question. Let's say I took some liquid like lemon juice and ran it though a rotary evaporator to get just the ...
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How (in)flammable is "isopropyl alcohol" really? [closed]
I have an electric device which frequently gets very oily (it's a vaporizer for herbs). It came with a few individually packaged small "tissues" drenched in "isopropyl alcohol". I've used up them all ...
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False positive in lucas test for primary alcohol due to formation of tertiary carbocation by rearrangement?
From Wikipedia:
The Lucas test in alcohols is a test to differentiate between primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols. It is based on the differences in reactivity of the three classes of alcohols ...
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Is dialkyldimethylammonium chloride suitable for sterilization in mycology? [closed]
In hobby-mycology 70% rubbing alcohol is commonly used for sterilizing work surfaces, bags, syringes, still air boxes, basically everything.
Alcohol however, seems to have some downsides, when it ...
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Measure ethanol volume fraction in a beverage [closed]
Given a sample of an alcoholic beverage (be it beer, wine, etc..), what are possible methods to find out the ABV (alcohol by volume) of it with moderate accuracy?
As fas as I know, some methods exist ...
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Transposition in vicinal diols dehydration
In this reaction, I don't know how I could place a methyl in the benzyl carbon. My first idea was to treat the compound with OsO4/H2O2 to form the vicinal diol, and then dehydrate in acidic medium and ...
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Which has a greater dipole moment: methylamine or methanol? [closed]
Which has a greater dipole moment: methylamine $(\ce{CH3NH2})$ or methanol $(\ce{CH3OH})?$
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Mass Spectra: 1-pentanol vs 3-pentanol
In mass spectrometry, 1-pentanol can be observed to have no peak at $m/z = 59$, whilst 3-pentanol can be observed to have a peak at $m/z = 59$.
Clearly the 3-pentanol peak at $m/z = 59$ is due to the ...
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Mechanism of the reaction of cyclohexanol and concentrated nitric acid to form adipic acid [closed]
If someone could please give me the hint to how the initial attack is carried out, it'd be a huge help.
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Is Pinacol rearrangement the source for the ring expansion?
I have no idea what's happening as in the product (the answer is (a)) there is a new ring being formed on the left benzene. But as I studied after $\ce{H2O}$ leaves, a carbocation is then formed on ...
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Reduction of an Allylic Enoate to afford allylic alcohol in presence of Benzyl Acetal Groups
I have a question that requires finding a reagent for the reduction of an enoate to the corresponding allylic alcohol. Preferably done in one step too with an acid workup at the end too.
What types ...
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Taking volume contraction into account when mixing water with ethanol
To calculate the amount of purified water and the amount of ethanol (96% Vol.) which is needed for a desired/variable amount of a mixture - given a desired/variable percentage of ethanol - I use the ...
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Does myristyl glucoside contain alcohol? [closed]
I read that "myristyl glucoside is a product obtained by the condensation of myristyl alcohol with aglucose polymer." Does that mean that alcohol is part of the final product/myristyl glucoside itself?...
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Rate determining step in oxidation of alcohols using chromium-related compounds
I wanted to ask a question about the kinetics of an oxidation reaction using chromium reagents.
I was given a lecture today on the mechanism of alcohol oxidations using Chromate (VI) reagents:
My ...
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What does ethylene glycol decompose to when exposed to air for an extended period of time?
I came across this article on wikipedia on ethylene glycol stating that it decomposes fairly quickly. I was under the impression that ethylene glycol was dangerous to let leach into soil, but I think ...
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What should be the name of the given compound?
Following compound is named as
(1) 6-Mercaptocyclohex-4-ene-1,3-diol
(2) 1-Mercaptocyclohex-2-ene-4,6-diol
(3) 1-Mercaptocyclohex-5-ene-2,4-diol
(4) 4-Mercaptocyclohex-2-ene-1,5-diol
As per my ...
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Is the reaction of anhydrous aluminium(III) chloride and anhydrous ethanol reversible?
I'm planning an experiment that I'll do in silico in the near future, and one of the steps involves the extraction of the $\ce{AlCl3 · C2H5OH}$ adduct without any water in it.
Can the ethanol be ...
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Do secondary alcohols react faster than primary alcohols or is it the other around? [closed]
My questions is that do secondary alcohols react faster than primary alcohols or is it the other around? This for the oxidation of the alcohol to a ketone or an aldehyde.
This reaction is with KMnO4 ...
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Alkene reaction with acid via SN1 reaction
I want to ask a question about alkenes and their reactivity with acids.
From high school studies, I recall that if you had an acid $\ce{H3O+}$ i.e. $H^+$ that it would react with an alkene as shown ...
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Nucleophilic Substitution Reaction of Alcohol
What is the final product?
According to me, it's option (3). But given answer in the booklet is (2).
Given primary alcohol undergoes SN2 reaction to produce isopentyl bromide and the latter again ...
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Ingredients for cleaning optical elements
I have recently purchased a cleaning solution for precision optics which has the following ingredients (amounts were not specified):
Ethyl Alcohol
Methylethylketon
Aqua
Diethyl Ether
Isopropyl
...
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When alcohol is used to sterilize, what about it changes that it can't be re-used? [closed]
I read online that when you use regular household rubbing alcohol to soak something for sterilization purposes, you're then supposed to toss it out. I'm just curious why.
Like, as long as there's a ...
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Which reaction occurs first when 5-hexen-1-ol reacts with sulfuric acid?
I am trying to solve this question:
Find the major product of the following reaction:
Now we could either do electrophilic addition on the alkene or do dehydration of alcohol. These two different ...
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Why doesn't ethanol dissolve in sodium bicarbonate?
Today I experimented with different solvents and solutes and was a bit surprised by one result. When I added ethanol to dilute sodium bicarbonate and tapped the test tube against my palm to mix it, I ...
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What is an example of an isopropyl alcohol resistant caulk?
What is a caulk (or bonding adhesive) that can be exposed permanently submerged in an isopropyl alcohol (>91%) bath?
The idea came from this previous question:
Silicone vs Alcohol
It seems from one ...
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Is propanol 1-2 diol 178 the same as propylene glycol?
I clean vinyl records in an ultrasonic vinyl record cleaning machine the manual states it uses propanol 1-2 diol 178 as a surfactant. I think this is the same chemical as propylene glycol. Is it?
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Alcohol Nonmeclature - Organic Chemistry
I'm new to organic chemistry and having some trouble naming alcohols. I came across this molecule, I believe it's name is 3-ethyl 2-pentanol, but my online checker system is saying that I am wrong. Am ...
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Diketone intramolecular reaction question
I realize that one of the methyl groups on either carbonyl compound will become deprotonated and then it will attack the other carbonyl to form a pentane ring. However, with the methyl group in the ...
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Role of hcl gas in organic reactions [closed]
I encountered many questions in the competitive exam field of high school organic chemistry where we add some compounds and treat it in excess alcohol solutions in the presence of dry hcl gas, it is ...
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Hemiacetal formation mechanism
The question is asking which reagents can be used to carry out this reaction. I get the L (PCC) is used to turn the primary alcohol into an aldehyde. However, I believe that is not the only reagent ...
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Ethyl acetate produces red colour on ceric ammonium nitrate test
When I did CAN test on ethyl acetate red colour was seen. I thought water may get added with Ethyl acetate to produce
this compound which in turn gave red coloration but carbon should not make three ...
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Why is the Lucas test not recommended to differentiate higher alcohols?
I read about the Lucas test for alcohols in which a cloudy precipitate is produced with a tertiary or secondary alcohol. However, on a side note it was mentioned that this test is useful only for ...
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Doubts Regarding Ceric Ammonium Nitrate Test for Alcohols
I read about Ceric Ammonium Nitrate Test for Alcohols and a red colour is produced if the solution has an alcohol functional group however as a side note it was mentioned that this test is only useful ...
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Neutralize the smell of alcohol in liquid chalk
i'm trying to mix my own liquid chalk, which is a simple mixture of chalk and a high percentage alcohol in a ~2 part chalk 1 part alcohol relation.
Unfortunately the smell is rather intensive and I ...
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Is there an easy way to detect methanol in spirits (which may have been adulterated)?
Is there an easy way to detect methanol in spirits, which, you suspect, may have been adulterated?
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Synthesis of phenethyl alcohol from benzene
How can I make phenethyl alcohol $(\ce{C6H5CH2CH2OH})$ from benzene?
I have got information that phenethyl alcohol is made from benzene by Friedel-Crafts reaction between benzene and ethylene oxide ...
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Does 2,2-dimethylpropan-1-ol give a positive Lucas test? [duplicate]
I learnt that the Lucas test involves the formation of a carbocation and it gives a positive test based on the stability of the carbocation formed, and hence primary alcohols do not show turbidity (...
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