basicity strength

[whoaaitzkyle]

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What is the rule? I can apply it when it has electron withdrawing groups such as phenol to know it's a weak base and a strong acid but what if it is like...

ethanol isoopropyl ethanol t-butyl ethanol

How do the rules of acidity//basicity work since the negative charge can't be spread out?

 

[Saber tooth]

When ever acid or base comes into play, always examine the conjugate (conj.)

For your examples, alcohols such as the onces you mentioned: ethanol , isoopropyl ethanol ,t-butyl ethanol ... have conj. bases called alkoxides which are very strong basic, making alcohols very weak acids

Hope it helps

Plus check out the Thread "how do you guys distinguish Acid/Base?" by joonkimdds ... it has some nice info!

 

[whoaaitzkyle]

When ever acid or base comes into play, always examine the conjugate (conj.)

For your examples, alcohols such as the onces you mentioned: ethanol , isoopropyl ethanol ,t-butyl ethanol ... have conj. bases called alkoxides which are very strong basic, making alcohols very weak acids

Hope it helps

Plus check out the Thread "how do you guys distinguish Acid/Base?" by joonkimdds ... it has some nice info!

thanks for the link...I read over it and I understand that part. I don't think they talk about basicity of chain length though.

In Achiever it says Phenol > ethanol > ispropyl alcohol > tert-butyl alcohol

After reading that post, I would have assumed since there is no resonance, you look at the size. If I were to refer to size alone, tert-butyl alcohol would be the largest meaning it would be easier to take off a proton. If that is so, shouldn't that be more acidic and not the most basic? Do I have this order incorrect?