Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers

Alcohols (R-OH), phenols (Ar-OH) and ethers (R-O-R') are oxygen-containing organic compounds central to everyday life - ethanol in beverages and fuel, phenol in antiseptics and resins, and ethers as solvents and former anaesthetics. This chapter, worth a reliable 7-10 Board marks and 3-4 JEE/NEET questions a year, builds the chemistry of the C-O single bond. We classify and name these compounds, study how alcohols are prepared (acid-catalysed hydration and hydroboration-oxidation of alkenes, reduction of carbonyl compounds, and from Grignard reagents) and how phenols are made (from haloarenes, benzenesulphonic acid, diazonium salts and the industrial cumene process). We explain their physical properties through hydrogen bonding, compare the acidity of alcohols and phenols (and the effect of electron-withdrawing and electron-donating substituents), and work through their chemical reactions - alcohols with reactive metals, esterification, the Lucas/Victor Meyer tests, dehydration and oxidation; phenols' acidity, electrophilic substitution, and the Kolbe and Reimer-Tiemann reactions. We then cover ethers - their preparation by Williamson synthesis, their physical properties, and the cleavage of the C-O bond by HX - and finish with the commercially important alcohols (methanol and ethanol) and the laboratory tests that distinguish 1, 2 and 3 alcohols. Every reaction, mechanism and exam-favourite comparison is covered.