Re: aldehydes vs. alcohols

Jolene (schmidjm@plu.edu)
Tue, 10 Dec 1996 11:04:49 -0800 (PST)

Alcohols have hydrogen bonding because of their -OH group. In an aldehyde
the only electronegative group, oxygen, is double bonded to carbon, so no
hydrogen bonding can occur that would cause it to have a higher boiling
point. I hope that helps!

On Mon, 9 Dec 1996 jonesjd@plu.edu wrote:

>
> On page 473 of the book it states "...aldehydes have lower boiling points
> than alcohols(why?)." Is this because alcohols have higher molecular
> weights because of the oxygen atom or is there something else that I am
> missing?
> Jason
>
>
>