 In this video you will learn some of the chemical properties of alcohols, how to classify alcohols and some uses of alcohols. Alcohols are organic molecules with the hydroxyl functional group, which is an oxygen bonded to a hydrogen OH. Here is methane. Replace a hydrogen with the alcohol functional group to form methanol. Here is ethane. And here is ethanol. Propane and propanol. Pause the video and name this molecule. This was butanol. Did you get it right? The general formula of the alcohols is CNH2N plus 1OH. The OH group generally makes alcohols polar molecules. The hydroxyl group also gives rise to hydrogen bonding. In our video on fractional distillation we discussed how increasing chain length increased the boiling point due to increased intermolecular forces. The alcohols follow this same trend but their boiling point is even higher than their comparable alkanes and this is due to the hydrogen bonding. Alcohols are placed in one of three categories, primary, secondary or tertiary, based on the position of the OH on the chain. Alcohols will react differently depending on the category they are in. In a primary alcohol the carbon atom on which the OH group is bonded is itself attached to only one carbon chain or one alcohol group. Here is propanol. The OH is attached to the end carbon and this carbon is attached to just one single chain of carbons. In secondary alcohols the carbon atom on which the OH group is bonded is attached to two carbon chains or two alcohol groups. Here is propanol. Here is the carbon atom on which the OH is attached and here you can see the two alcohol groups or two chains of carbons attached to this carbon. In tertiary alcohols there are three carbon chains attached to the carbon on which the OH group is attached. As you can see the carbon attached to the OH group is attached to three alcohol groups making it a tertiary alcohol. It is important to categorise an alcohol as they have slightly different chemical properties. A good example of this that you could look into as further reading would be the oxidation of alcohols with different reactions occurring for primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols. Different alcohols have different uses at home and in industry. Ethanol is of course a common alcohol used in beverages but is also an important antiseptic. Ethanol can be made by two main methods by fermentation and by the hydration of ethene. We have made a video on these molecules to learn about these methods in more detail. Other uses of alcohols are as fuels, preservatives and solvents. Now at the end of this tutorial you should be able to identify the alcohol functional group, name alcohols, understand their uses and be able to categorise them as primary, secondary or tertiary.