Physical Properties

Having covered how aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids are prepared (12.4-12.5), the chapter turns next to how these three families actually BEHAVE physically -- their physical state, boiling points, and solubility, and crucially WHY they behave that way, in terms of the intermolecular forces present. Section 12.6.1 sets out the underlying intermolecular-force picture; 12.6.2 and 12.6.3 give the resulting physical-state/boiling-point and solubility trends for aldehydes and ketones specifically; and 12.6.4 gives the corresponding physical-state, boiling-point and solubility picture for carboxylic acids, which turns out …