Why does water have higher boiling point than alchohol?

Answer 1

Ethanol is made of an oxygen attached to a hydrogen and a group of carbons which looks like R-O-H where R represents the group of carbons. Water has two hydrogens attached to an oxygen so it looks like H-O-H. Remember only O-H and N-H bonds can have hydrogen bonds (a transient bond made between neighboring molecules), and the more hydrogen bonds you have, the more stable your collection of molecules. Water can create 2 hydrogen bonds for each water molecule whereas ethanol can only create 1 for each of its own molecules. Since water can create more hydrogen bonds, it takes much more energy to break water molecules apart compared to ethanol. More energy required translates to a higher boiling point.

Water has a higher boiling point than many compounds because of hydrogen bonding. I said earlier N-H bonds create hydrogen bonds too, but the reason why water boils at higher temperatures is because water is more electronegative. This means oxygen likes electrons so much it will partially take them from neighboring hydrogens creating something called a dipole moment. This just means the oxygen carries a partial negative charge and the hydrogens carry a partial positive charge. This dipole moment is much bigger compared to that in any N-H bond so hydrogen bonds are weaker in N-H bonds than in O-H bonds.

For the record, ethanol WILL evaporate before water.

Answer 2

Ethane and ethanol have different molecular structures. Ethane is 2 carbon atoms surounded by 6 hydrogen atoms, while ethanol is has one of the hydrogen atoms replaced with an OH molecule (hydroxyl group). This hydroxyl group polarizes the molecule. This polarization causes the surrounding molecules to attract to one another much more than non-polarized molecules would. Ethane is non-polarized and therefore less attracted (i.e. has less affinity) to other ethane molecules. Ethanols polarization and strong affinity to surrounding ethanol molecules makes it harder (i.e. takes more work) to break the bond (i.e. van der Waal's force) between the molecules and therefore giving ethanol a higher boiling point than ethane.

Answer 3

Water have stronger bonding that alcohols.
Boiling point of water is 100.0 degree Celsius and that of alcohol is lot lower than that.
Stronger the intermolecular forces in a molecule, higher the boiling point.

Answer 4

The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the environmental pressure surrounding the liquid.

Answer 5

In water molecules have more intermolecular hydrogen bonding between smaller molecules than exhibited in ethanol.

Answer 6

Water molecules are associated by hydrogen bonds.

Answer 7

it doesnt