Structure of the functional group of alcohol

Structure of the functional group of alcohol.

The structure of -O-H group which is attached to a sp³ hybridised carbon is similar to the structure of -O-H group attached to a hydrogen in water. i.e., ‘V’ shaped. In such alcohols, one of the sp³ hybridised orbital of oxygen linearly overlap with the sp³ hybridised orbital of carbon to form a C- O, ' σ ' bond and another sp3 hybridised orbital linearly overlap with 1s orbital of hydrogen to form a O-H ' σ' bond.

The remaining two sp³ hybridised orbitals of oxygen are occupied by two lone pairs of electrons. Due to the lone pair – lone pair repulsion, the C-O-H bond angle in methanol is reduced to 108.9° from the regular tetrahedral bond angle of 109.5° .