Question

chemical test to distinguish between phenol and alcohol

Answer 1

Alcohols are compounds in which the OH group is attached to a saturated carbon (sp3 C) while phenols’ OH is attached to a benzene ring. Both are considered weak acids. Alcohol’s acidity is so weak that it’s often ignored in organic chemistry. Phenol, however, can transfer the hydrogen from the OH group and form phenoxide conjugate base. Compared to other alkoxides, phenoxide is more stable as the negative charge on the oxygen can be stabilized by delocalization of electrons on the benzene ring. Bear in mind that phenol is still a very weak acid.

Phenol will turn litmus paper red and alcohol will turn it between red to blue (for neutral). Also keep in mind that if the concentration of the testing solution is too low, it will not be acidic enough to show effect on the paper.Bromine water, normally orange-brown color, can help test the presence of unsaturation. When you test saturated alcohol and phenol with this, you are expected to see no change in the former and decolorization (with white precipitate of brominated phenol) in the latter.Ferric chloride test is specific for determination of phenol presence. So as mentioned above, phenol is more acidic and can form phenoxide anions. This can form complex with Fe(III) in FeCl3, which has a blue/green/red color depending on the nature of the phenol. Alcohol is too weakly acidic to even form the alkoxide or the complex.Again, it’s the phenoxide presence that makes phenol more reactive with diazonium salt.The test with NaOH is just a normal acid-base reaction.

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Answer 2

Phenols are the aromatic organic compounds that have a hydroxyl group directly connected to a ring and alcohols are the non- aromatic compounds that have a hydroxyl group connected to the main chain. The difference is that one is cyclic and one is non- cyclic.

A simple way would be to dissolve some in water that had a pH of 7 and remeasure the pH after you add either phenol or ethanol. The former (phenol) will change the pH because it is an acid in water, ethanol will not change the pH because it is neutral in water.

Other ways, well, at room temperature, phenol is a solid and ethanol is a liquid. Lots of other ways but these are the simple ones to observe or measure. One other difference, a ethanol will get you drunk whereas a similar amount of phenol will probably kill you.