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Grade 12Organic Chemistry

Question: Phenol is more acidic than cyclohexanol. How?

Profile image of Shamit Jain
5 Years agoGrade 12
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1 Answer

Profile image of Mayank Ranka
5 Years ago

 

One of the  Important effects on the acidity of a molecule is if  the conjugate base anion can be stabilized by resonance. Phenol, for example , is stronger  acid than cyclohexanol  because the conjugate base of phenol is much more stable than the conjugate base of cyclohexanol. This added stability of the phenol conjugate base arises because this anion can delocalize the negative charge throughout the ring through resonance, effectively stabilizing it. The conjugate base of cyclohexanol has no resonance structures to stabilize the charge and so is less stable.