3.8 Butyfyl Alcohols

The four butyl alcohols have distinctive names in this system:

n-butanol

isobutanol

sec-butanol

tert-butanol

Among the butanols, tert-butanol is miscible (i.e. can freely and easily mix) with water, sec-butanol is somewhat soluble (i.e. some amount will dissolve) in water, while n-butanol and isobutanol are only slightly soluble.

Alcohols with longer carbon chains are oily liquids that can only hold traces of water and vice versa, although polyols tend to be miscible with water if they have fewer than 4 carbon atoms per oxygen atom.

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