The Student Room Group
Reply 1
i think alcohols are less acidic than water, well weaker acids.

heres something from wikipedia, might help, might not, i thought it was a good thing to know :biggrin:

"Alcohols, like water, can show either acidic or basic properties at the O-H group"

hope it helps :\
Alcohols are very weak acids, that's about as much help as i can give you. In order to calculate the pH you need to know more information!
Reply 3
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HMR
OP
Thanks guys! What is more acidic then, alcohols or carboxylic acids? Presumably the latter?
Reply 4
carboxylic id assume, realtive inductive effect on the -OH forcing the h to become H+, they are weak but can donate protons, and only partially dissociate with their ions!
Reply 5
pH of 7/8?
Yeah the COOH of a carboxylic acid group donates protons as apposed to the aldehyde or ketone groups of primary and secondary alcohols which cannot.
Reply 7
There's delocalisation which extends from the lone pair on oxygen to form the coo- which is stabilised. This weakens the o-h bond causing it to more readily dissociate, thus making it a stronger acid.
Reply 8
According to the syllabus I'm doing, alcohols are neutral in pH. They do not donate their protons easily since unlike carboxylic acids, the charge of the resulting anion could not be delocalised since there is no C=O double bond or pi electrons in alcohols.

celeritas
pH of 7/8?

Carboxylic acids?
Reply 9
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HMR
OP
Thanks for all ya help guys. Managed to get in touch wi an old chemistry teacher. For anyone else who wants to know... alcohols (primary ones at least) are neutral while carboxylic acids are obviously acidic. :smile: