Which of the following can hydrogen-bond with itself?
#(a)# butane
#(b)# acetone
#(c)# acetic acid
1 Answer
Should be
While it's true that acetone,
Acetic acid,
By recalling the relative intermolecular forces and their strengths...
London Dispersion
#<# Dipole-Dipole#<# H-"bonding"#<# Ion-Dipole#<# Ion Pair
...and recalling that as intermolecular force strengths increase, molecules stick together more and vaporize less easily (corresponding to a higher boiling point), we would then have that:
- since butane,
#"CH"_3"CH"_2"CH"_2"CH"_3# , only has London Dispersion (being a hydrocarbon, a nonpolar molecule!), it has the lowest boiling point. - since acetone has dipole-dipole interactions with ITSELF, it has the second-highest boiling point.
- since acetic acid hydrogen-bonds with ITSELF, it has the highest boiling point.
And we can't go without the data. From a quick Google search:
#-1^@ "C"# for butane
#56^@ "C"# for acetone
#118.1^@ "C"# for acetic acid
which follows the trend predicted above. Hence, the answer is