Identify species that can form hydrogen bonds..
In which of the following pure substances would hydrogen bonding be expected?
\, \,Propanol Dimethyl ether
\begin{matrix} \underset{|}{H} \quad \underset{|}{H} \quad \underset{|}{H} \\ \qquad H-C-C-C-O-H \\ \overset{|}{H} \quad \overset{|}{H} \quad \overset{|}{H} \end{matrix} \begin{matrix} \underset{|}{H}\hspace{30 pt} \underset{|}{H} \\ H-C-O-C-H \\ \overset{|}{H} \hspace{30 pt} \overset{|}{H} \end{matrix}
You are asked to predict whether hydrogen bonds are present in a sample of a pure substance.
You are given the chemical structure of the substance.
Although both compounds contain oxygen and hydrogen, of the two, only propanol contains an O—H bond. Hydrogen bonding occurs between molecules containing O—H, N—H, or H—F bonds, so we expect there to be hydrogen bonding between propanol molecules.