Question

How do you differentiate ethylene glycol, and ethanol based on their IR spectra?

Answer 1

That would be a hard thing to do....

Explanation:

IR spectroscopy is a so-called sporting technique of analysis that relies on inference, and supposition, unlike a non-sporting technique of analysis such as `""^1H` `"NMR spectroscopy"` that would tell you the difference `"pdq"`.

You could probably search on the web for the IR spectra of each substance....

`"IR spectrum of ethanol"`

`"IR spectrum of ethylene glycol"`

And even with the spectra before you, they are hardly discriminating....

On the other hand, were you presented with the solution `""^1H` `"NMR spectrum"` of each substance, you could immediately differentiate between the two.