Mass transfer rates, k(L), of single carbon dioxide bubbles contaminated with alcohols in vertical pipes of 12.5, 18.2 and 25.0 mm diameters were measured to investigate effects of the carbon chain length of the alcohols on kL. Four straight-chain alcohols, i.e. 1-pentanol, 1-heptanol, 1-octanol and 1-decanol, were used. A wide range of bubble diameter, d, covered ellipsoidal and Taylor bubbles. Effects of the alcohol concentration, C-sol, on k(L) were also investigated to make clear the values of C-sol corresponding to fully contaminated conditions. As a result, the following conclusions were obtained. (1) The kL of bubbles contaminated with alcohols decrease with increasing C-sol, and they become constant at high C-sol, i.e. bubbles in the latter C-sol ranges are fully-contaminated from the point of view of mass transfer. On the other hand, the rising velocities decrease with increasing C-sol due to the reduction of surface tension even when k(L) are independent of Cob (2) The k(L). of ellipsoidal bubbles fully-contaminated with alcohols decrease with increasing the carbon chain length, whereas the reduction rate of kL becomes smaller and smaller as the carbon chain length increases. The k(L). of fully-contaminated ellipsoidal bubbles can be expressed by accounting for the adsorption constant of alcohol in an available kL correlation. (3) The increase in the carbon chain length also decreases k(L) of fully-contaminated Taylor bubbles, whereas the effect of carbon chain length on k(L), becomes smaller with increasing d. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.