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Chemguide: Core Chemistry 14 - 16: Carboxylic Acids
Chemguide: Core Chemistry 14 - 16: Carboxylic Acids
Carboxylic acids
I am assuming that you have already read the pages about organic formulae
and organic names.
Names
Look carefully at how the names work. The part of the name which counts the
number of carbon atoms includes the one in the COOH group.
The old (and still used) common name of ethanoic acid is acetic acid and this
is responsible for the acidity and smell of vinegar.
Structures
The complicated bit is the COOH group. The oxygens are written separately
because they aren't bonded in the same way.
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If you are asked for the structural formula in an exam, that is how you should
write the COOH group. If you were asked for a fully displayed formula, then
you would draw all the individual C-H, C-C and O-H bonds as well.
The pure acids are colourless liquids with boiling points above that of water.
The only one you are likely to come across is ethanoic acid which smells very
powerfully of vinegar.
Acids ionise in solution to form hydrogen ions. A strong acid like hydrochloric
acid exists almost entirely as hydrogen ions and chloride ions in solution.
A weak acid like ethanoic acid and the other carboxylic acids only ionise to a
small extent in solution in water - typically only around 1% of the acid exists as
ions at any one time.
When you add concentrated ethanoic acid to water, this equilibrium is set up.
The CH3COO- ions are called ethanoate ions and have this structure:
So ethanoic acid solution (and solutions of the other carboxylic acids) contain
hydrogen ions, but not as many as hydrochloric acid of the same
concentration. This shows in their reactions.
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Simple reactions
Dilute ethanoic acid reacts in the same way as acids like hydrochloric acid -
just slower.
The video shows a simple comparison between the two acids with magnesium
ribbon and with solid sodium carbonate.
The video uses the symbol 1M for the concentrations of the two acids. If you
haven't done any chemistry calculations yet, you won't know what that means.
It doesn't matter - they are the same concentration.
Hydrogen gas is produced and the magnesium reacts with the acid to give a
colourless solution of magnesium ethanoate.
2CH3COOH + Mg (CH3COO)2Mg + H2
The ethanoate ion has the formula CH3COO-. It carries one negative charge.
To balance the two positive charges on a magnesium ion, you need two
ethanoate ions for each magnesium ion.
Why is it written that way round with the magnesium on the end? Because
that's the way we do it!
By writing it that way round, we keep the structure of the compound more
easily understandable.
https://chemguide.co.uk/14to16/organic/acids.html Page 3 of 5
carboxylic acids 22/4/2022, 23:14
Suppose we wrote it the same way around as we write things like magnesium
sulfate, but still tried to show how it was joined up. It would look like this:
Mg(OOCCH3)2
At first glance that doesn't obviously have anything to do with ethanoic acid.
You would mix two colourless solutions and get another colourless solution of
sodium ethanoate. A simple neutralisation reaction occurs.
Apart from the slightly awkward formulae of their salts, carboxylic acids just do
the same sort of things as other acids you have come across - just more
slowly.
https://chemguide.co.uk/14to16/organic/acids.html Page 4 of 5
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