Question

why phenols are more acidic than alcohols and water?

Answer 1

Dear student!

Phenol is an aromatic compound which is more acidic than alcohol since phenols can delocalized its electrons. Also, phenols can remove its hydrogen to make it more stable. The ion is called the phenoxide ion and it gets stability by resonance which is not found in aliphatic alcohol.

Further, phenol is more acidic than water too, because water has more polar OH-group (in H-OH) than in phenol, because, the alkyl group releases electrons and minimizes polarity of -OH group so, the water can have more stable hydroxide ion.