Chapter 15: Alcohols, Diols and Thiols |
The organic chemistry that allows the interconversion of the functional groups containing oxygen is very important and will be reviewed and expanded over the next few chapters.
The importance of alcohols as a functional group is emphasised by the fact that although we have already encountered several methods for their preparation, there are still more. Infact, a good understanding of the chemistry of alcohols is very important in order to be able to complete synthesis problems efficiently.
A useful sequence to keep in mind is the redox "ladder" between alcohols,carbonyls and carboxylic acids:
(Note the increasing number
of C-O bonds as we go L to R) |
Review Functional Groups : | Oxygen | Sulfur |
Preparations of Alcohols
© Dr. Ian Hunt, Department of Chemistry |