Q.Why ethanol has higher boiling point than ethane?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →H-bonding between ethanol's groups is much stronger than ethane's weak dispersion forces, so ethanol needs more energy (a higher temperature) to vaporise.
Ethanol () and ethane () have similar molar masses (46 vs 30 g/mol), so if only dispersion (van der Waals) forces mattered, their boiling points would be closer together. However, ethanol's group makes it capable of extensive intermolecular hydrogen bonding: the highly electronegative oxygen of one ethanol molecule's attracts the partially-positive hydrogen of a neighbouring molecule's , linking molecules into a hydrogen-bonded network in the liquid.
Ethane, being a non-polar hydrocarbon with only C–H and C–C bonds, has no such hydrogen bonding — its molecules are held together only by weak, easily-overcome London dispersion forces.
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