Bromine water reacts with phenols without the need for a halogen carrier; I understand that. So can the bromine water test be used to tell between an alkene and a phenol?
Igloo writes … Bromine water does react rapidly at room temperature with both alkenes and phenols. In both cases the colour change will be from orange to colourless. However, in the case of phenols, a tribrominated substitution product is obtained (e.g. with phenol itself, 2,4,6-tribromophenol), and this is a white solid, mostly insoluble in water, so a white precipitate is formed at the same time. Thus if an unknown organic compound gives just the orange to colourless change with bromine water, you can assume that you are testing an alkene (or at least a compound with a double C=C bond). If, on the other hand, a white precipitate is produced at the same time, then the unknown compound is likely to be a phenol. However, this is not a very reliable means of distinguishing between the two type of compound. A neutral solution of aqueous iron(III) chloride gives a purple colour with phenols but not with alkenes. (See Nuffield Chemistry students book Topic 12). This is a far more satisfac
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