Octanol is a higher alcohol with eight carbon atoms and a general formula of C8H18O.
H H H H H H H H
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H - C - C - C - C - C - C - C - C - OH
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H H H H H H H H
Water/Octanol Partitioning
Octanol and water are immiscible. The distribution of a compound between water and octanol is used to calculate the partition coefficient (logP) of that molecule. It has been shown that water/octanol partitioning is a good approximation of the partitioning between the cytosol and lipid membranes of living systems.