What is the boiling point trend of alcohols compared to alkanes?

What is the boiling point trend of alcohols compared to alkanes?

Step 1: Understand what boiling point means. It is the temperature at which a liquid turns into a gas.
Step 2: Know that alcohols and alkanes are both types of organic compounds.
Step 3: Recognize that alcohols contain a hydroxyl group (-OH) which allows them to form hydrogen bonds.
Step 4: Understand that hydrogen bonds are strong attractions between molecules, which require more energy to break.
Step 5: Compare this to alkanes, which do not have hydrogen bonding and only have weaker van der Waals forces.
Step 6: Conclude that because alcohols can form hydrogen bonds, they have higher boiling points than alkanes.

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