like dissolves like question

[reburbia]

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An ink molecule has an alcohol functional group. TBR asks what would be the best solvent to dissolve this ink...

Immediately I narrow it down to alcohols and carboxylic acids. I said the latter because in addition to having an alcohol, it also has a ketone, so overall more polarity.

TBR says an alcohol would be better than a carboxylic acid, because the former is more volatile than the latter. Never heard this before.

Is this just a weird question or is there some truth I should take from this...

 

[chiddler]

all carboxylic acids are solid except acetic and formic acid! but i'm not sure volatility is the key to this question. why is volatility used as an explanation?

 

[reburbia]

no idea. but thanks for solid explanation