----------------------------------- person Sat Sep 23, 2006 9:36 pm organic chemistry ----------------------------------- Why will the chain length of an alcohol affect its reactivity with an ion (say Na for example)? ----------------------------------- Cervantes Sun Sep 24, 2006 9:17 am ----------------------------------- The chain is hydrophobic. Non-polar bonds. That region doesn't like electrically charged stuff. What kind of scenario are you asking about? Dumping an alcohol onto salt crystal? Or pouring an alcohol into salt water? ----------------------------------- person Sun Sep 24, 2006 9:40 am ----------------------------------- Not a real scenario, but something on the lines of: OH2(CH2)CH3 + Na --> ONaCHCH2CH3 + H2 versus something longer, say the same reaction with 1-octanol instead of isopropanol ----------------------------------- Delos Sun Sep 24, 2006 1:22 pm ----------------------------------- Oi-vay! Legible forms perhaps...I'm not even sure what your reactants are...is "OH2(CH2)CH3" supposed to be: HO-C=C-CH3? That's what it looks like. In which case you're bringing in alkene chemistry too. That's not terribly bad, it's just not very illustrative for these purposes. Let's take a simple alcohol and react with sodium, like propanol: 2(HO-CH2-CH2-CH3) + 2Na --> 2ka-boom!), where as the same reactions with the latter are much more mild and might even be endothermic (H-bonds or ionic bonds are formed). A slight slip of nomenclature can land you in serious trouble in a test. Best to be hard on yourself now and save yourself later.