Exciting Gas Production Experiment with Sodium Bicarbonate!

What happens when sodium bicarbonate is added to ethyl ether?

A. Gas is produced, resulting in bubbles and foaming

B. No gas is produced

Answer:

A. Gas is produced, resulting in bubbles and foaming

When sodium bicarbonate is added to ethyl ether, an exciting reaction takes place! The gas produced in this experiment is carbon dioxide (CO2), which leads to the formation of bubbles and foaming. This reaction is not only interesting to observe but also has important applications in various fields.

The reaction between sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) and ethyl ether (C2H5OH) can be represented by the following equation:

2 NaHCO3 + 2 C2H5OH → 2 CO2 + 2 H2O + 2 NaC2H5O

As we can see from the balanced equation, the combination of sodium bicarbonate and ethyl ether produces carbon dioxide gas (CO2), water (H2O), and sodium ethoxide (NaC2H5O). This gas production leads to the exciting bubbles and foaming that you observe during the experiment!

← Evaporation coatings and the role of plasticizers keeping products flexible How well do you know ethanol and intermolecular forces →