Chemistry / Unit 12 Chem 2460 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Alcohols: The Hydroxyl Functional Group
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The idea
An alcohol is a hydrocarbon where a hydroxyl group, –OH, replaces a hydrogen, named by swapping an alkane's final -e for -ol plus a position number.
In practice
Replacing one hydrogen on propane with a hydroxyl group at the middle carbon gives 2-propanol.
Where people slip
An alcohol's –OH is covalently bonded to carbon, unlike the ionic OH− of sodium hydroxide, so alcohols are not strong bases.
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