The determination of boiling points of chemical molecules is an important element in chemistry since compounds can be identified and distinguished from one another based on their unique temperature at which they turn into gases from a liquid state (Brown, Poon, and Poon, 2014). The boiling point of a liquid is determined by the intermolecular forces by the intermolecular forces that occur between the molecules. Consequently, the stronger the intermolecular forces the higher boiling point of a compound as more kinetic energy is required to break the intermolecular forces (Jones and Atkins, 2004). Some examples of intermolecular forces include hydrogen bonds, dipole-dipole attractions, and London dispersion forces. Hydrogen bonds refer to the attraction in hydrogen atom that is connected to a very electronegative atom. The dipole-dipole attractions occur between opposing charges of polar molecules while London dispersion forces are weak bonds that are present in all molecules due to the disruption of electrons around an atom (Timberlake, 2006). Functional groups are the other factors that affect the boiling point due to the fact that different hydrocarbons lead to different effect of intermolecular forces. Hydrogen bonds are the strongest and hence require the highest amount of energy to be broken and hence high boiling points in the molecules with such forces. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the boiling points between 1-hexanol and 2-hexanone.
The boiling points for 1-hexanol and 2-hexanone are 157.5°C and 127.2°C respectively. Consequently, 1-hexanol has a higher boiling point than 2-hexanone. 1-hexanol has the highest boiling point due to the presence of the hydroxyl (OH) functional group that leads to the existence of the hydrogen bonds that require relatively high energy to be broken (Burrows et al., 2017). Figure 1 is the structure of 1-hexanol (C6H14O) with the OH group and hydrogen bonds. On the other hand, 2-hexanone has consists of dispersion forces that are present in the carbon chains and the ketone functional group as demonstrated in figure 2.
Figure 1: Structure of 1-hexanol with hydrogen bonds
Figure 2: Structure of 2-hexanone with the ketone group with dispersion forces
References
Brown, W.H., Poon, T. and Poon, T., 2014. Introduction to organic chemistry. John Wiley " Sons.
Burrows, A., Holman, J., Parsons, A., Pilling, G. and Price, G., 2017. Chemistry3: introducing inorganic, organic and physical chemistry. Oxford University Press.
Jones, L. and Atkins, P.W., 2004. Chemistry: Molecules, Matter and Change. TPB.
Timberlake, K.C., 2006. Chemistry: An introduction to general, organic, and biological chemistry. Pearson/Benjamin Cummings.
