Organic Chem- Reactions Of Alcohols

Question 1

What are primary/secondary/tertiary alcohols

Answer 1

Relate to where the OH group attaches.
OH group on a carbon attached to one carbon= primary
OH group attached to carbon attached to two carbons=secondary
OH Group attached to carbon attached to tree carbons= tertiary

Question 2

What is oxidation?

Answer 2

Addition of oxygen/ removal of hydrogen

Question 3

What is reduction?

Answer 3

Removal of oxygen/addition of hydrogen

Question 4

What is used to oxidise alcohols??

Answer 4

An oxidising agent like acidified potassium dichromate

Question 5

What are aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids??

Answer 5

Aldehydes= carbon double bonded to oxygen and bonded to hydrogen eg methanAL

Ketone= carbon double bonded to oxygen and bonded to two other carbons eg propanONE

carboxylic acid=carbon double bonded to oxygen and single bonded to OH group eg Ethanoic acid

Question 6

What are the two reactions of a PRIMARY alcohols and how are they done??

Answer 6

Under distillation with an oxidising agent- primary alcohol becomes an aldehyde plus water

Under reflux with oxidising agent- alcohol becomes a carboxylic acid

The reflux reaction is just the distillation reaction but continued, so it first forms an aldehyde and water, and then a carboxylic acid- the overall equation is
Alcohol+2[O]—>carboxylic acid +water

Question 7

What is the reaction of secondary alcohols??

Answer 7

Under REFLUX ONLY

secondary alcohols oxidises to become ketones and water made too

Question 8

Why can’t tertiary alcohols be oxidised??(find diagram)

Answer 8

No where for oxidising agent to other Hydrogen from, one comes from the OH group, but the other one can’t come from anywhere else