Question

Of methane, methanol, phenol, and benzene, which solvent has the strongest degree of intermolecular hydrogen bonding?

Answer 1

A hard question to answer..........

Explanation:

We could interrogate the normal boiling points of methane, methanol, benzene, and phenol, and we gets............

`"Boiling point:"` `CH_4,-164` `""^@C;` `CH_3OH,64.7` `""^@C;C_6H_6,80.1` `""^@C;` `C_6H_5OH,180.7` `""^@C.`

Clearly, phenol has the highest boiling point, and by this criterion, the greatest INTERMOLECULAR interaction. On the other hand, the boiling point of methanol has increased over `200` `""^@C` with respect to its parent hydrocarbon, whereas for phenol, the equivalent increase is `100` `""^@C`.

On the other, other hand, phenol has limited water solubility; whereas methanol is infinitely miscible with water, which of course is strongly hydrogen bonding. On this last basis, I propose that methanol has the strongest intermolecular hydrogen bonding.