If ethanol is being made from chloroethane, can NaOH be used as a catalyst?
In the answers, it uses OH as the cataylst
Thanks
What happens in that reaction is the Cl- possesses a very high electronegativity, hence, it will attract to the Na+ in the NaOH and create NaCl. The OH- now left alone will come into substituting the place of Cl- and bond with the partial positive Carbon
Hence, the whole equation is for e.g.:
CH3Cl(g) + NaOH (aq) -> CH3OH + NaCl (aq)
The electronegativity bit is correct. However, note that your product is NaCl (aq). In other words, your Cl- doesn't really bind to Na+.
What really happens is that the C-Cl bond is polar, with the carbon slightly positive. It therefore attracts a fully negative hydroxide ion. As Cl- is a weaker base than OH-, we can understand why Cl- is more stable than OH-, explaining why OH- substitutes for Cl- and not the other way around.
The OH- is actually consumed in the reaction; it's not a catalyst.
When an acidic solution is diluted, does the pH increase or decrease? And pls explain why
Acidic solution diluted => pH must increase. Sure, if it's a weak acid the percentage ionisation increases, but this increase in % ionisation predicted by Le Chatelier's principle cannot fully offset the volume increase and dilution, so the concentration of H+ decreases overall and the pH increases.