Question

Functional group and bond hybridization of vanillin

Answer 1

Vanillin is the common name for 4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzaldehyde.

See attached figure for the structure.

Vanillin have 3 functional groups:

1) aldehyde group:  R-HC=O, in which the carbon is double bonded to oxygen

2) phenolic hydroxide group: R-OH, were the hydroxyl group is bounded to a carbon from the benzene ring

3) ether group: R-O-R, were hydrogen is bounded through sigma bonds to carbons

Now for the hybridization we have:

The carbon atoms involved in the benzene ring and the red carbon atom (from the aldehyde group) have a sp² hybridization because they are involved in double bonds.

The carbon atom from the methoxy group (R-O-CH₃) and the blue oxygen's have a  sp³  hybridization because they are involved only in single bonds.