What is phenol Chemguide?

Phenol is the simplest member of a family of compounds in which an -OH group is attached directly to a benzene ring. Phenol itself is the only one of the family that you are likely to need to know about for UK A level purposes. The structure of phenol.

What can phenols react with?

Phenol reacts with sodium hydroxide to form a salt which is much more soluble than phenol itself.

• Phenol is such a weak acid that it does not react with carbonates.
• Like other alcohols phenol can form esters, but it doesn’t react directly with carboxylic acids.

What happens to a phenol with iron III chloride reagent?

The reaction with iron(III) chloride solution can be used as a test for phenol. If you add a crystal of phenol to iron(III) chloride solution, you get an intense violet-purple solution formed.

What happens when phenol reacts with bromine?

When phenol reacts with bromine water 2,4,6- tribromophenol is formed. Bromine water is decolourises and a white precipitate is formed.

Do phenols react with carbonates?

You can recognise phenol because: It is fairly insoluble in water. It reacts with sodium hydroxide solution to give a colourless solution (and therefore must be acidic). It does not react with sodium carbonate or hydrogencarbonate solutions (and so must be only very weakly acidic).

What happens when phenol react with concentrated HNO3?

If phenol is treated with concentrated nitric acid then picric acid is formed.

Can phenol react with ammonia?

The amination of phenol with ammonia in the presence of hydrogen over palladium supported on alumina gives aniline effectively at 250 °C. The rate-determining step of the reaction is concluded to be in the hydrogenation of phenol into cyclohexanone.

Does phenol react with bases?

the acidity of phenol. This page explains why phenol is a weak acid and looks at its reactions (or in some cases, lack of reaction) with bases and with sodium metal. Why is phenol acidic? Compounds like alcohols and phenol which contain an -OH group attached to a hydrocarbon are very weak acids.

What type of reaction will convert phenyl benzoate to phenol?

Phenyl benzoate is prepared by Schotten- Baumann method of benzoylation. In this method of benzoylation phenols are reacted with benzoyl chloride in presence of aqueous sodium hydroxide and the reaction mixture is shaken vigorously.

How does phenol react with acetyl chloride?

When phenol is reacted with acetyl chloride in the presence of sodium hydroxide, it leads to the formation of phenyl esters and this reaction will lead to the formation of phenyl ethanoate. This reaction shows the acidic nature of phenol.

Which compound is predominantly formed when phenol is allowed to react with bromine?

2,4,6 -tribromophenol.

Why can phenol react with bromine without a catalyst?

Explain why benzene requires use of a halogen carrier catalyst to react with bromine while phenol does not. The oxygen atom in the phenol molecule has a lone pair of electrons. These electrons become delocalised into the aromatic ring, increasing its electron density.