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or a very strong base such as sodium hydride: CH 3 CH 2 OH + NaH → CH 3 CH 2 ONa + H 2. The acidities of water and ethanol are nearly the same, as indicated by their pKa of 15.7 and 16 respectively. Thus, sodium ethoxide and sodium hydroxide exist in an equilibrium that is closely balanced: CH 3 CH 2 OH + NaOH ⇌ CH 3 CH 2 ONa + H 2 O
A strong base is a basic chemical compound that can remove a proton (H +) from (or deprotonate) a molecule of even a very weak acid (such as water) in an acid–base reaction. Common examples of strong bases include hydroxides of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, like NaOH and Ca(OH) 2, respectively. Due to their low solubility, some ...
Its conjugate base is the acetate ion with K b = 10 −14 /K a = 5.7 x 10 −10 (from the relationship K a × K b = 10 −14), which certainly does not correspond to a strong base. The conjugate of a weak acid is often a weak base and vice versa.
Similarly the strength of a strong base is leveled by the acidity of the solvent. When a strong acid is dissolved in water, it reacts with it to form hydronium ion (H 3 O +). [2] An example of this would be the following reaction, where "HA" is the strong acid: HA + H 2 O → A − + H 3 O + Any acid that is stronger than H 3 O + reacts with H ...
With aqueous pK a values of around 16–19, alcohols are, in general, slightly weaker acids than water. With strong bases such as sodium hydride or sodium they form salts [a] called alkoxides, with the general formula RO − M + (where R is an alkyl and M is a metal). R−OH + NaH → R−O − Na + + H 2 2 R−OH + 2 Na → 2 R−O − Na + + H 2
Water is amphoteric: it has the ability to act as either an acid or a base in chemical reactions. [87] According to the Brønsted-Lowry definition, an acid is a proton (H +) donor and a base is a proton acceptor. [88] When reacting with a stronger acid, water acts as a base; when reacting with a stronger base, it acts as an acid. [88]
The conjugate base is the carboxylate salt. In this case, hydroxide is a strong enough base to deprotonate the carboxylic acid because the conjugate base is more stable than the base because the negative charge is delocalized over two electronegative atoms compared to one.
Sodium methoxide is prepared by treating methanol with sodium: 2 Na + 2 CH 3 OH → 2 CH 3 ONa + H 2. The reaction is so exothermic that ignition is possible. The resulting solution, which is colorless, is often used as a source of sodium methoxide, but the pure material can be isolated by evaporation followed by heating to remove residual methanol.