Alcohols and Ethers - Chemical Ideas 13.2
Alcohols
Alcohols can be easily identified by a hydroxyl group (-OH) and having a name ending in -ol (eg. ethanol). To name an alcohol is similar to naming other hydrocarbons. Firstly count the number of carbons in the longest chain. We then drop the "e" from the parent alkane name and add -ol. For example we know the number of carbons is six and therefore the start of the name is hex- and the hydroxyl group tells us it is an alcohol. So when the pieces are added together we get the name of hexanol or it could be called hexan-1-ol with the 1 signifying the place of the hydroxyl group.
Above is also the skeletal drawing for hexanol.