An alcohol contains one or more hydroxyl (OH)
group(s) directly attached to carbon atom(s), of an
aliphatic system (CH3OH) while a phenol contains –OH
group(s) directly attached to carbon atom(s) of an
aromatic system (C6H5OH) The substitution of a hydrogen atom in a
hydrocarbon by an alkoxy or aryloxy group
(R–O/Ar–O) yields another class of compounds known
as ‘ethers’, for example, CH3OCH3 (dimethyl ether) You
may also visualise ethers as compounds formed by
Rationalised 2023-24
194
Chemistry
substituting the hydrogen atom of hydroxyl group of an alcohol or
phenol by an alkyl or aryl group In this unit, we shall discuss the chemistry of three classes of
compounds, namely — alcohols, phenols and ethers