One method for preparing alcohols involves hydration of alkkenes with aqueous acids. In light of this fact, it seems surprising that the phosphoric acid promotes the elimination of cyclohexanol to give cyclohexene plus water at high temperatures, the very components required to make cyclohexanol. Why was your experiment successful?

answer:

the answer is 6 valence electrons.

explanation:

valence is the # of electrons on the outer most shell of an atom.

oxygen has 6.

although, the valency of oxygen is 2, because it only needs to make 2 covalent bonds, or gain 2 electrons, to achieve the stable octet configuration of a noble gas.

that's it!

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