Question

Identify if phenol is insoluble, partially soluble or highly soluble in water?

Answer 1

Phenol is an aromatic organic compound known by the molecular formula ${{C}_{6}}{{H}_{5}}OH$. It is white crystalline solid and volatile in nature so requires careful handling. It comes under the category of alcohols group as it contains OH group.

Complete Step by step solution: Firstly Phenol was extracted from coal tar but today it is produced on a large scale from petroleum derivatives. Phenol is primarily used to synthesize plastics and related materials. Nowadays Phenol and its chemical derivatives are essential for the production of Bakelite, nylon, detergents, epoxies, herbicides and a number of pharmaceutical drugs. In aqueous solution in the pH range of 8 - 12 it is in equilibrium with the phenolate anion ${{C}_{6}}{{H}_{5}}{{O}^{-}}$ which can also be called phenoxide. Phenol is a weak acid but we can say that it is more acidic than aliphatic compounds containing an OH group due to resonance stabilization of the phenoxide anion by the aromatic ring. In this way the negative charge on oxygen is delocalized onto the ortho and para carbon atoms through the $\pi$ system. Phenol is an organic compound which is partially soluble in water having about 0.842 M of concentration i.e. 84.2 gm is dissolving in 1000 ml of water. The sodium salt of phenol i.e. sodium phenoxide is far more water-soluble. Another reason for its partially soluble nature is that it contains polar ions i.e. presence of hydrogen ions in alcoholic groups.

Note: If the electronegativity difference between the two atoms is in between the range of 0.5 and 2.0 then atoms form a polar covalent bond and the electronegativity difference between the atoms is greater than 2.0 then the bond formed is ionic in nature.