Difference Between Phenol and Phenyl

Thekey differencebetween phenol and phenyl is thatphenol has a羟group whereas phenyl has no hydroxyl group.

Phenol is anaromaticalcohol. It has the chemical formula C₆H₅OH. Therefore, the chemical structure of the phenol molecule has a苯环和羟基（-oH）附着在其上。苯基是苯酚的衍生物；如果我们从苯酚分子中去除羟基，则会给出苯基。

内容

1.Overview and Key Difference
2.什么是苯酚
3.What is Phenyl
4.并排比较 - 表格形式的苯酚与苯基
5.概括

什么是苯酚？

Phenol is an aromatic hydrocarbon compound having the chemical formula C₆H₅OH. This compound exists as a white crystalline solid at room temperature. And also it is a volatile hydrocarbon. When considering the chemical structure of the molecule, it contains a phenyl group attached with a hydroxyl group (-OH). Moreover, this compound is mildly acidic. Thus, we need to take care when handling it.

该化合物的摩尔质量为94.11 g/mol。它有甜味。此外，其熔点和沸点分别为40.5°C和181.7°C。它与水混溶，因为它可以与水分子形成氢键。当它失去–OH基团的氢时，它会形成负电荷的苯酯离子，它变成共振稳定，从而使苯酚成为相对较好的酸。在共振稳定中，氧原子上的负电荷与环中的碳原子共享。

What is Phenyl?

Phenyl is a group of atoms with the formula C₆H₅. This group derives from benzene, therefore, has similar properties as benzene. However, this differs from benzene due to lack of a hydrogen atom in one carbon. So the molecular weight of phenyl is 77 g mol^-1. We can denote phenyl as “Ph”. Usually, phenyl attaches with another phenyl group, atom or molecule (we name this additional part as the substituent).

The carbon atoms of phenyl are sp2 hybridized carbon atoms same as in benzene. All the carbons can form three sigma bonds. Two of the sigma bonds forms between two adjacent carbons so that it will give rise to a ring structure. The other sigma bond forms with a hydrogen atom. However, in phenyl, in one carbon in the ring, the third sigma bond forms with another atom or molecule rather than with a hydrogen atom.

The electrons in p orbitals overlap with each other to form the delocalized electron cloud. Therefore, phenyl has similar C-C bond lengths between all carbons, regardless of having alternating single and double bonds. This C-C bond length is about 1.4 Å. The ring is planar and has 120^o碳周围的键之间的角度。由于苯基取代基，极性和其他化学或物理特性发生了变化。

If the substituent donates electrons to the delocalized electron cloud of the ring, we name them as electron donating groups. (E.g., – OCH₃, NH₂) In contrast, if the substituent attracts electrons from the electron cloud, we name them as electron withdrawing substituents. (E.g., -NO₂, -COOH). Phenyl groups are stable due to their aromaticity, so they don’t easily undergo oxidations or reductions. Further, they arehydrophobicand non-polar.

What is the Difference Between Phenol and Phenyl?

Phenol is an aromatic hydrocarbon compound having the chemical formula C₆H₅OH whereas phenyl is a group of atoms with the formula C₆H₅. Therefore, phenyl and phenol differ from each other due to the presence of a –OH group in phenol. Because of this, all the properties of the two differ. The key difference between phenol and phenyl is that phenol has a hydroxyl group (-OH) whereas phenyl has no hydroxyl group.

As another important difference between phenol and phenyl is that phenol is moderately soluble in water because it can form hydrogen bonds with water while Phenyl is hydrophobic. Moreover, Phenyl cannot be considered as a stable molecule itself, because it is a substituent. Phenol is actually a phenyl derivative with a –OH group. Also, one more difference between phenol and phenyl is that Phenyl cannot be resonance stabilized or don’t have acidic nature like phenol.

概括– Phenol vs Phenyl

Phenyl is a group of atoms that derive from phenol via the removal of hydroxyl group (-OH). The key difference between phenol and phenyl is that phenol has a hydroxyl group whereas phenyl has no hydroxyl group.

Reference:

1. “Phenol.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Oct. 2018.Available here
2.“苯基。”。Wikipedia，Wikimedia基金会，2017年12月15日。Available here

Image Courtesy:

1.本米尔斯（Ben MillsCommons Wikimedia
2.”Phenyl-group-2D-flat”By No machine-readable author provided (Public Domain) viaCommons Wikimedia