General

What is the IUPAC convention for naming alcohols?

1. Find and name the alkane.
2. Identify the number of the hydroxyl bonding position:
   • As outlined earlier, the goal is to count in such a manner as to derive the lowest number for the substituent group.
3. Drop the terminal $e$ of the base chain and replace it with the suffix $-ol$ preceded by the number of the hydroxyl position^46.1. For example:

   Figure 45.2: Propan-1-ol (CH$_{2}$CH$_{2}$CH$_{2}$OH).

   

4. For organic molecules with more than one hydroxyl group, the prefixes ``di-'' or ``tri-'' are used:

   Figure 45.3: Ethane-1,2-diol (ethylene glycol) CH$_{2}$OHCH$_{2}$OH.

   

What are the three ÒtypesÓ of alcohols?

1$^{o}$ (primary) alcohols; in which the carbon bonded to the hydroxyl group is either bonded to one (or less) other carbons.

2$^{o}$ (secondary) alcohols; in which the carbon bonded to the hydroxyl group is bonded to two other carbons.

3$^{o}$ (tertiary) alcohols; in which the carbon bonded to the hydroxyl group is bonded to three other carbons.

Figure 45.4: Methanol, a 1$^{o}$ alcohol (left), isopropanol, a 2$^{o}$ alcohol (center), and 2-methylpropan-2-ol, a 3$^{o}$ alcohol (right).

What would these three types of alcohols be oxidized to?

Table 45.1: Oxidative products of 1$^{o}$, 2$^{o}$ and 3$^{o}$ alcohols.

	Oxidized to$\ldots$
1$^{o}$ alcohols	Aldehydes
2$^{o}$ alcohols	Ketones
3$^{o}$ alcohols	Resistent to oxidation because there are no attached hydrogens on the carbon attached to the hydroxyl group

Figure 45.5: Oxidation of propanol to propanal (and the reduction of propanal to propanol).