What is phenol used for?
Phenols are widely used in household products and as intermediates for industrial synthesis. For example, phenol itself is used (in low concentrations) as a disinfectant in household cleaners and in mouthwash. Phenol may have been the first surgical antiseptic.
Is phenol harmful to humans?
Phenol is highly irritating to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes in humans after acute (short-term) inhalation or dermal exposures. Phenol is considered to be quite toxic to humans via oral exposure.
What is another name of phenol?
carbolic acid
noun Chemistry. Also called carbolic acid, hydroxybenzene, oxybenzene, phenylic acid. a white, crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous mass, C6H5OH, obtained from coal tar, or a hydroxyl derivative of benzene: used chiefly as a disinfectant, as an antiseptic, and in organic synthesis.
Is phenol an alcohol?
Although phenols are more acidic compared to alcohols, we can say that phenols are considered as a subset of alcohol. And, it’s a fact that both alcohol and phenols contain a hydroxyl group. Phenols can also be named as carbolic acids.
What is phenol and what is its usual application?
Phenol is also used in the study and extraction of bio-molecules. Molecular biology finds the application of phenol in the extraction of nucleic acids from tissue samples for further investigations. Phenol is also used in the cosmetic industry in the manufacturing of sunscreens, skin lightening creams and hair colouring solutions.
What is the difference between phenol or alcohol?
The key difference between alcohols and phenols is that the alcohols are organic compounds containing -OH group as an essential component whereas the phenols are a group of alcohols which contains -OH group and a benzene ring as essential components.
What does the name phenol mean?
Phenol, any of a family of organic compounds characterized by a hydroxyl (-OH) group attached to a carbon atom that is part of an aromatic ring. Besides serving as the generic name for the entire family, the term phenol is also the specific name for its simplest member, monohydroxybenzene (C 6 H 5 OH), also known as benzenol, or carbolic acid.
What class of drug is phenol?
In organic chemistry, phenols, sometimes called phenolics , are a class of chemical compounds consisting of a hydroxyl group (—OH) bonded directly to an aromatic hydrocarbon group. The simplest of the class is phenol, C. 6H.