Physical Properties of Phenol

Phenol is a colourless, needle-shaped, hygroscopic, corrosive and poisonous crystalline solid that turns pink on exposure to air and light (due to slow aerial oxidation). Simple phenols are low-melting solids or liquids with unusually high boiling points for their size, again due to intermolecular hydrogen bonding of the -OH group. Phenol itself is only slightly soluble in water (it can hydrogen-bond with water, but its bulky aromatic ring limit …