Organic Compounds Containing Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen: Alcohols and Ethers

Organic Compounds Containing Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen: Alcohols and Ethers


? Learning objectives:
? To give an overview of some relevant compounds of C, H and O and particularly the alcohols.
? To prepare the ground for understanding the chemistry of later compounds containing alcohol
and ether groups.

Diagnostic test
1. What is the chemical name of the alcohol used in alcoholic drinks?
2. The alcohols are members of the monohydric alcohol series with the general formula CnH2n +1OH.
Give the formula and names for the alcohols when n=1 and 3
3. In what structural way does methanol resemble water?
4. C6H5OH has an OH group joined to a six-membered ring. What is the compound called?
5. Glycerine is a trihydric alcohol, CH2OH.CHOH.CH2OH. What is the chemical name?
6. C2H6O is the general formula for an alcohol and also dimethyl ether. Give the formula for each
isomer.

Ethanol, C2H5OH, is commonly called alcohol. Some desperate people drink meths, containing methanol,
CH3OH, as a means of getting drunk but it sends them blind and eventually insane, hence the expression ‘blind drunk’.
Antifreeze, C2H4(OH)2, and glycerine, C3H5(OH)3, are members of different alcohol series and behave differently.