Physical Properties
Ether molecules cannot form hydrogen bonds with each other, resulting in a relatively low boiling points compared to those of the analogous alcohols. The difference, however, in the boiling points of the ethers and their isometric alcohols becomes lower as the carbon chains become longer, as the van der Waals interactions of the extended carbon chain dominates over the presence of hydrogen bonding.
Ethers are slightly polar. The C-O-C bond angle in the functional group is about 110°, and the C-O dipoles do not cancel out. Ethers are more polar than alkenes but not as polar as alcohols, esters, or amides of comparable structure. However, the presence of two lone pairs of electrons on the oxygen atoms makes hydrogen bonding with water molecules possible.
Cyclic ethers such as tetrahydrofuran and 1,4-dioxane are miscible in water because of the more exposed oxygen atom for hydrogen bonding as compared to aliphatic ethers.
| Selected data about some alkyl ethers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ether | Structure | m.p. (°C) | b.p. (°C) | Solubility in 1 liter of H2O | Dipole moment (D) |
| Dimethyl ether | CH3-O-CH3 | -138.5 | -23.0 | 70 g | 1.30 |
| Diethyl ether | CH3CH2-O-CH2CH3 | -116.3 | 34.4 | 69 g | 1.14 |
| Tetrahydrofuran | O(CH2)4 | -108.4 | 66.0 | Miscible | 1.74 |
| Dioxane | O(C2H4)2O | 11.8 | 101.3 | Miscible | 0.45 |
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