Physical Properties of Carboxylic Acids
1 . Aliphatic carboxylic acids up to nine carbon atoms are colourless liquids at room temperature with unpleasant odours . The higher acids are wax like solids .
2 . The lower carboxylic acids are freely miscible with water due to the presence of intermolecular hydrogen bonding with H2O molecules . However , the solubility in water decreases gradually due to increase in the size of alkyl group .
3 . Monocarboxylic acids have higher boiling points as compared to the alcohols of comparable molecular masses due to the presence of stronger intermolecular hydrogen bonding as shown below .