Final answer:
Water reacts with acetic anhydride to produce acetic acid. This reaction is a common method to synthesize acetic acid in organic chemistry, yielding two molecules of acetic acid for each molecule of acetic anhydride.
Step-by-step explanation:
The product of water and acetic anhydride is acetic acid. When water reacts with acetic anhydride (an acid anhydride), it yields two molecules of acetic acid. This reaction is important in organic chemistry for the synthesis of acetic acid and can be summarized by the chemical equation:
CH3CO(OCOCH3) + H2O → 2 CH3COOH
It's noteworthy that acid anhydrides like acetic anhydride are more reactive than the carboxylic acids from which they are derived and hence will readily react with water to produce carboxylic acids such as acetic acid, which is a weak acid and exhibits ionization in water forming hydronium ions (H3O+) and acetate anions (CH3COO−).