Question

What is a secondary alcohol?

Answer 1

Hint: When an organic compound has a functional group of OH, it is called an alcohol. Alcohols may be attached on the carbon atoms of the hydrocarbon chains. This attachment results in various degrees of alcohol. These are primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols called as $1{}^\circ $, $2{}^\circ $and $3{}^\circ $alcohols.

Complete answer:
Alcohols are the functional groups that are attached in organic compounds, generally in hydrocarbon chains. Alcohol groups contain oxygen and hydrogen atoms in the arrangement, O – H. When attached with hydrocarbons they give them a name of alkanols.
Alcohols have different attachment positions on the carbons in the organic compounds that define their degree. When an alcohol is attached with only one carbon atom it is termed as primary or $1{}^\circ $alcohol, when it is attached with a carbon atom attached with two other carbon atoms, then it is called as a secondary or $2{}^\circ $alcohol. When an alcohol is attached with a carbon that is attached with three other carbon atoms, then it is called a tertiary or $3{}^\circ $ alcohol.
So, secondary alcohol is an alcohol that is attached on that carbon of the hydrocarbon chain which is attached with two other carbon atoms. The examples of secondary alcohols are:

We can see that the general formula for secondary alcohol is ${{R}_{2}}CHOH$, where R is the alkyl group.
Hence, a secondary alcohol is the alcohol group that is attached on a carbon which is attached with two other carbon atoms.

Note:
Secondary alcohols can be prepared by the reduction of ketones. As ketone consists of a carbonyl group in the middle of the carbon chain, reducing agents reduce this carbonyl group into the alcohol group. Example, propan – 2 – one, converts into propan – 2 – ol in the presence of lithium aluminum hydride as, $C{{H}_{3}}\overset{\overset{O}{\mathop{||}}\,}{\mathop{-C-}}\,C{{H}_{3}}\xrightarrow{LiAl{{H}_{4}}}C{{H}_{3}}-\overset{\overset{OH}{\mathop{|}}\,}{\mathop{CH}}\,-C{{H}_{3}}$ .