Question

What happens when ethanoic acid is reacted with sodium metal?

Answer 1

1. In general metal react with acids to form salt and hydrogen gas.
2. The general reaction can be written as,
3. $\mathrm{Metal}+\mathrm{acid}\to \mathrm{Salt}+\mathrm{Hydrogen}\uparrow$
4. Ethanoic acid $\left(CH₃COOH\right)$ being a weak acid reacts with sodium metal $\left(Na\right)$ to form sodium acetate $\left(CH₃COONa\right)$, also called as sodium ethanoate with the liberation of hydrogen gas$\left(H_2\right)$.
5. $$\begin{gathered} 2CH₃COOH+2Na\stackrel{}{\to }2CH₃COONa+H_2 \\ \left(Ethanoicacid\right)\left(sodium\right)\left(sodiumacetate\right)\left(hydrogengas\right) \end{gathered}$$