In organic Chen we have a priority list of functional group,why some functional group got priority reason? what's the chemistry behind that COOH got high priority compare to OH?

1 Answer
Jan 2, 2018

I think It was related to organic reaction. Carboxylic group is more reactive than hydroxyl.

Explanation:

When the compound that has multiple functional groups react with the reactant, it will react with the most reactive group. Hydroxyl group is a strong base and poor leaving group, while carboxylic has an electropositive carbon atom that can be easily attacked by a nucleophile. Therefore, the carboxylic group has high priority than hydroxyl.