Final answer:
Alcohols in organic chemistry have properties such as solubility, boiling point, and polarity.
Step-by-step explanation:
An alcohol is an organic compound with a hydroxyl (OH) functional group on an aliphatic carbon atom. Alcohols can be represented by the general formula ROH, where R is an alkyl group. Some properties of alcohols include:
- Solubility: The lightest alcohols, such as methanol and ethanol, are soluble in water. However, as the length of the carbon chain increases, the solubility decreases.
- Boiling point: Alcohols have relatively high boiling points compared to alkanes of similar molar mass due to the presence of hydrogen bonding.
- Polarity: Alcohols have polar bonds due to the electronegativity difference between oxygen and carbon/hydrogen atoms.