Can Sodium be used to distinguish between cyclobutanol and butanoic acid

Question

asked Dec 14, 2020 182k views

1 Answer

Sindhu Sarathy · Answer 1 · 2020-12-19T07:45:00+0000

Answer:

$\boxed{\text{No}}$

Step-by-step explanation:

Na reacts with all OH groups to produce hydrogen.

The reaction with cyclobutanol is shown below.

The reaction with butanoic acid is

$\rm CH_(3)CH_(2)CH_(2)COOH\xrightarrow{\text{Na}} CH_(3)CH_(2)CH_(2)COO^(-) + H_(2)$

Both compounds release bubbles of hydrogen, so you can't use sodium to distinguish between them.