How many equivalent hydrogens does ethanol have?

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How many equivalent hydrogens does ethanol have?

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Answer 1 · 2015-08-19T01:27:20

Ethanol has three sets of equivalent hydrogens.

Explanation:

The structure of ethanol is

www.bbc.co.uk

The molecule contains six $H$ $"H"$ atoms. Some of them are different from each other.

For example, there are three equivalent $H$ $"H"$ atoms on the ${CH}_{3}$ $"CH"_3$ group.

They are different from the hydrogens on the ${CH}_{2}$ $"CH"_2$ group.

And the $H$ $"H"$ atom on the oxygen is different from all the others.

One way to check whether certain $H$ $"H"$ atoms are equivalent is to replace each $H$ $"H"$ atom with a group like $Cl$ $"Cl"$ and see if you generate the same compound.

Replacing any $H$ $"H"$ atom in the ${CH}_{3}$ $"CH"_3$ group gives ${ClCH}_{2} {CH}_{2} OH$ $"ClCH"_2"CH"_2"OH"$ .

Replacing any $H$ $"H"$ atom in the ${CH}_{2}$ $"CH"_2$ group gives ${CH}_{3} CHClOH$ $"CH"_3"CHClOH"$ .

Replacing the $H$ $"H"$ atom on the $O$ $"O"$ gives ${CH}_{3} {CH}_{2} OCl$ $"CH"_3"CH"_2"OCl"$ .

Here is the NMR spectrum of ethanol.

upload.wikimedia.org
(from en.wikipedia.org)

The three blue, the two green, and the single red hydrogen make up three different sets of equivalent hydrogens.

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How many equivalent hydrogens does ethanol have?

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