Acetic acid

Ethanoic acid (the systematic name for Acetic acid) is a 2 carbon molecule withcarboxylic acid group -COOH. It has a Molecular weight of 60.05 and a pK_a value of 4.75.

Acetic acid reacts with alcohols in a condenstation reaction to form water and an ester with the functional group 'R'-COOC-'R'

It can be formed from the oxidation of Ethanol under acidic conditions and reflux using a strong oxidising agents such as potassium dichromate.

Ethanoic acid is a weak acid and only partially disasscociates in water to form an ethanoate ion CH₃COO^- and a hydrogen ion^[1]^[2]^[3].

References

[1] ttp://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.171.html

[2] ttp://clas.sa.ucsb.edu/staff/Resource%20folder/Chem109ABC/Acid,%20Base%20Strength/Table%20of%20Acids%20w%20Kas%20and%20pKas.pdf

[3] ttp://www.creative-chemistry.org.uk/alevel/module3/documents/N-ch3-15.pdf

[1]

[2]

[3]

Acetic acid

References

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