Why is ethanol completely miscible with water

When a solid dissolves in a liquid, we very seldom find that the liquid has any tendency to dissolve in the solid. In a saturated solution of potassium chloride, for example, essentially no water dissolves in the potassium chloride crystals. With liquids the situation is usually different. If equal quantities of 1-butanol and water are shaken together, the mixture slowly separates into two layers. The top layer is not pure 1-butanol but a saturated solution of water in 1-butanol.

An unknown alcohol is treated with the Lucas reagent to determine whether the alcohol is primary, secondary or tertiary. Which alcohol reacts fastest and by what mechanism?

B is oxidised in the presence of air to form the compound C. Chemistry Most Viewed Questions. Identify a molecule which does not exist. Identify the incorrect match. Which of the following set of molecules will have zero dipole moment? On electrolysis of dil. Butanol is the name we give to any molecule with a hydroxyl -OH group chemically bonded to a four-carbon backbone. But there are actually four different ways to chemically bond a hydroxyl group to a four-carbon backbone.

While all four of these molecules are alcohols and behave like alcohols, their different geometries do affect their physical and chemical properties. For example, tert -butanol is less chemically reactive than other forms of butanol because its hydroxyl group is surrounded on three sides by carbon atoms. This limits physical access to the hydroxyl groups, and reduces the probability that another molecule will react with the hydroxyl group by colliding with it and breaking the O-H chemical bond.

When butanol is manufactured, n -butanol and isobutanol are typically both produced at the same time in the same overall chemical reaction. When chemical reactions are driven by heat and molecular collisions and not on the surface of controlled catalysts , it is very difficult to restrict products to a single type of molecule.

The mixture of n -butanol and isobutanol can then be separated into pure substances. You will see many different names for the same molecule depending on the naming system being used. The situation for triglycerides the primary molecule in vegetable oils and animal fats is even worse. A triglyceride consists of a glycerol chemically bonded to three fatty acids.

A fatty acid molecule is basically a long chain of carbon atoms attached to a carboxyl -OOH group. This carboxyl group enables a fatty acid to chemically bond with the glycerol. Most fatty acids in naturally occurring triglycerides contain between 16 and 20 carbon atoms.

Because of their long, nonpolar carbon chains, triglycerides are insoluble in water. This is why oil and water do not mix. Water and oil molecules are actually almost completely neutral towards each other water molecules are slightly attracted to the glycerol end of a triglyceride molecule.

Oil and water do not mix only because water molecules are so strongly attracted to other water molecules.