Why does naphthol react with sodium hydroxide? why does ethanol not react to the extent that naphthol does with sodium hydroxide
?
1 answer:
Answer:
Conjugate base of naphthol is highly stable but conjugate base of ethanol is unstable.
Explanation:
Naphthol gives acid base reaction with NaOH where naphthol acts as an acid and NaOH as a base.
Reactivity of naphthol towards NaOH is quite high because the conjugate base of naphthol is highly stable. Stability of the conjugate base arises due to delocalization of negative charge on oxygen atom into aromatic naphthalene ring.
Ethanol is not so reactive towards NaOH because the ethoxide ion is highly unstable due to lack of delocalization of negative charge on oxygen atom.
Resonance structures of conjugate base of naphthol has been shown below.
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