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

1 Answer
Dec 2, 2017

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....

commons.wikimedia.orgcommons.wikimedia.org
"IR spectrum of ethanol"

google.comgoogle.com

"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.