what are the intermolecular forces present in:

1. n-propyl alcohol
2. n-butanol
3. 2-butanol
4. tert-butanol alcohol
5. pentane
6. hexanes

I know that the forces include- dipole-dipole, ion-dipole, dispersion, and hydrogen bonding...but I don't know how to pick which one is for which!!

1 answer

H bonding occurs when you have N (as amines), O(as in alcohols etc) and F.
Alkanes and alkenes have only dispersion forces. You can usually pick out dipole-dipole forces because the molecules are dipoles. (I consider H bonding to be a special case of dipole-dipole bond). Ion-dipole is essentially the same as dipole-dipole but between an ion/dipole and not dipole/dipole.