alcohols

nchemistry, analcoholis anorganic compoundin which thehydroxylfunctional group(-OH) is bound to acarbonatom. In particular, this carbon center should besaturated, having single bonds to three other atoms.

An important class of alcohols are the simpleacyclicalcohols, the general formula for which is C_nH_2n+1OH. Of theseethanol(C₂H₅OH) is the alcohol found inalcoholic beverages; in common speech the wordalcoholrefers to ethanol.

Other alcohols are usually described with a clarifying adjective, as inisopropyl alcohol(propan-2-ol) orwood alcohol(methyl alcohol, ormethanol). The suffix-olappears in theIUPAC chemical nameof all substances where the hydroxyl group is the functional group with the highest priority; in substances where a higher priority group is present the prefixhydroxy-will appear in theIUPACname. The suffix-olin non-systematic names (such asparacetamolorcholesterol) also typically indicates that the substance includes a hydroxyl functional group and, so, can be termed an alcohol. But many substances, particularly sugars (examplesglucoseandsucrose) contain hydroxyl functional groups without using the suffix.

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Ruchi
Askiitians Faculty