C-O bond is much shorter in phenol than in ethanol. Why?


C-O bond is much shorter in phenol than in ethanol due to resonance effect in phenol.


In phenol, the lone pair on oxygen is in conjugation with electrons of ring due to which the C-O bond acquires a partial double bond character and length of double bond is less than that of a single bond. No such affect is seen in ethanol.



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