Question

Carboxylic acids are often written as RCOOH. What does $\mathbf{-}\mathbf{\text{COOH}}$indicate, and what does Rindicate? Aldehydes are sometimes written as RCHO. What does$-\mathbf{CHO}$indicate?

Short answer

Here, "R" represents the alkyl group, “-COOH” indicates the carboxylic acid functional group, and "CHO" represent the aldehyde functional group.

Step-by-step solution

Definition of the functional groups.

The functional groups like “-COOH”, “-CHO” are the group of atoms in any compound that makes the compound different from others because of its distinct chemical properties.

THE R, COOH and CHO indicates.

RCOOHis the symbol for carboxylic acids.

Here, the alkyl group is represented byR,and the carboxylic functional group is represented by COOH.

RCHOis the symbol for aldehydes.

R is the representation ofthe alkyl group and the aldehyde functional group is represented by CHO.