AQA Chemistry Alevel Organic synthesis

Is (CH3)3CCH2OH a primary or quaternary alcohol? Surely (CH3)2COHCH2CH3 is the same but just in a different orientation?

Reply 1

Biolover2020

Original post by ivy1407

Is (CH3)3CCH2OH a primary or quaternary alcohol? Surely (CH3)2COHCH2CH3 is the same but just in a different orientation?

Hi,

(CH3)3CCH2OH is a primary alcohol as the alcohol group is connected to a carbon that is connected to one other carbon only. I think that this would be called 2,2dimethylpropan-1-ol.

(CH3)2COHCH2CH3: I don't think that this molecule would be the same as the one above. The alcohol group is connected to a carbon connected to 2 methyl groups and an ethyl group. I think it would be called 2-methylbutan-2-ol.

I think googling the names of the molecules would help to see how they are different? I hope this helps :smile:

Reply 2

Mnarz786

They’re two different molecules. Try drawing them both out in those two different orientations. They’re known as positional isomers as they have the same molecular formula but different position of functional group