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Title: Why is the boiling point of a parent alcohol higher than that of a product alkene? Post by: Rkamu on Sep 18, 2012 I'm doing dehydration of 4-methyl-2-pentanol and this is one of the study questions but I'm not sure how to describe why this is true.
Title: Why is the boiling point of a parent alcohol higher than that of a product alkene? Post by: rkkovach on Sep 18, 2012 boiling point depends on the intramolecular forces attracting the molecules to each other. The stronger the forces the higher the boiling point. An alcohol has hydrogen bonding contributing the the intermolecular forces. H-bonding is much higher than the London dispersion force (temporary dipoles) which is the main intermolecular force in the alkene product of your elimination reaction. The higher the forces attracting the molecules the more energy required to get the vapor pressure to atmospheric pressure and thus the higher the boiling point.
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