Eli5 why is isopropyl alcohol so much cheaper than ethyl alcohol?
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I believe that isopropyl alcohol is easier to make than ethanol, if I’m recalling what my organic chemistry professor told me correctly. I asked a similar question, except mine was “why is IPA so much more common that ethanol”, and I’m pretty sure the answer was its easier to make. IPA you can make by oxidizing vinyls, which are a cheap and plentiful reagent. If I’m recalling my organic chemistry reactions correctly, there is not a simple one or two step process for making ethanol from a cheap reagent.
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