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Two Carbon Compounds, Five Reactions
Ethanol (C₂H₅OH) and ethanoic acid (CH₃COOH) are the two carbon compounds that appear again and again in science papers. Both are everyday substances: ethanol is the alcohol in spirit, sanitisers and fuel blends, and ethanoic acid is the sour part of vinegar. What separates them is a functional group. Ethanol carries −OH (alcohol) and ethanoic acid carries −COOH (carboxylic acid). Almost every question asks what each one does with sodium, with a carbonate or bicarbonate, with an oxidising agent, with concentrated sulphuric acid, or with the other compound. If you can write five equations and remember one observation for each, you can answer nearly every item on this topic. This short builds them in order: ethanol's properties and reactions, ethanoic acid's properties, then esterification and saponification, and finally the traps exams set around them.
1. Which gas is released when ethanol reacts with sodium metal?
2. The sour taste of vinegar is due to which acid?
3. Heating ethanol with excess concentrated sulphuric acid at 443 K mainly produces:
4. Which test distinguishes ethanoic acid from ethanol?
5. Ethanoic acid reacts with ethanol in the presence of concentrated H₂SO₄ to form which ester?
6. The alkaline breakdown of an ester into soap and alcohol is called:
7. Pure ethanoic acid is called glacial acetic acid because it:
8. Which poisonous substance is added to ethanol to make denatured spirit?