How do you Compare and contrast aldehyde and alcohol?

Answer 1

First you need to collect some data about a range of alcohols and the related aldehyde. Look up the melting points and boiling points of methanol and methanal, ethanol and ethanal, propan-1-ol and propanal, butan-1-ol and butanal. Put them in a table and look for trends. What happens to the boiling points as the carbon chains increase in size? Which boiling points are higher, alcohols or aldehydes? You could draw a graph of boiling point against number of carbons in the chain. Show the line for alcohols and the line for aldehydes on the same axes. Do some similar analysis for melting points. You could also look at density data. Include some different reactions that alcohols and aldehydes undergo, including some quick tests for each. Fiinally, include some unquantifiable properties, like appearance and smell. How do alcohols smell differently than aldehydes.

Answer 2

Aldehydes and alcohols are both functional groups containing oxygen, but they differ in their structure and properties. Aldehydes have a carbonyl group (CHO) at the end of a carbon chain, while alcohols have a hydroxyl group (OH) attached to a carbon chain. Aldehydes are more reactive and easily oxidized compared to alcohols.