What is the connection between ethanol and sulfuric acid?
The connection between ethanol and sulfuric acid includes at least three possible reaction pathways. They are esterification - including one or two molecules of ethanol or alcohol - and dehydration, again including one or two alcohol molecules. If dehydration includes only one molecule of each of the ethanol and sulfuric acid, the product is gas, important in nature and is useful in the laboratory and industry. When two alcohol molecules are united by dehydration, the result of the liquid of historical medical significance. Both esterification products are limited. It is so strong acid, it can ionize, even without water, while as a dehydratator can "pull" the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen from the molecules to satisfy his "thirst". This characteristic is shown by a simple high school experiment in which several Sugar table grains, C 12 h 22 o 11 are combined with some drops of concentrated sulfuric acid in a tube or beaker. During a few sectionsNDs become reactants black and cooked violently. The black color is now caused by elementary 12 carbon atoms from each sugar molecule, while 22 hydrogen atoms and 11 oxygen atoms were converted into 11 water molecules.
ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol or grains, is very similar to water. Its structure is ch 3 ch 2 oh. In principle, ethanol is simply water, with one of its hydrogen atoms replaced by a carbon-based handle, relatively inert ch 3 ch --. Another way to look at ethanol is a very weak base, reminiscent of - at least superficially - sodium hydroxide, naoH. Although ethanol is usually too weak base to ionize, under certain conditions it is should be able to produce salts of similar structures.
sodium hydroxide can produce either two salts with sulfuric acid, one of which is sodium hydrogen sulfate (naSO 4 ), derived from one base molecule and one acid. Although it is salt, it is also acid because it still retains one hydrogen atom in its structure. If this sour Solt reacts with the second molecule NaOH, the results of the neutral salts-sodium (at 2 4 ). The corresponding way, if ethanol and sulfuric acid are combined under moderate and controlled conditions, ethyl hydrogen sulphide has the result of the reaction path of ch 3 2 OH+H 2 4 The combination of ethanol and sulfuric acid also reacts with another molecule of ethanol, diethylsulphate - called simpler, ethylsulphate - results. Interestingly, even though it is limited to the use of forensic scientists employing ethylphate to detect alcohol in blood and urine, days after it was consumed.
Under stricter conditions, esterification is replaced by dehydration. Dehydration of one mOleculus monitors the equation of ch 3 ch 2 oh → ch 2 = ch 2 +HOH. The gaseous product is ethylene, a plant hormone associated with ripening of fruit and other processes. If two ethanol molecules are dehydrated rather than one, the reaction is 2 ch 3 2 2 oh → ch 3
The connection between ethanol and sulfuric acid is therefore at least four times. The results of their combination include two esterification products and two dehydration products depending on the conditions under which the reaction is performed. In addition to the fine response, the product esterification depends on how much of each reaction composition exists at any time during the reaction. Dehydration also depends on the relative population of ethanol and sulfuric acid at all times during the reaction.