question_answer 101)

  Arrange water, ethanol and phenol in increasing order of acidity and give reason for your answer.

Answer:

                  Due to +I-effect of  group electron density in the O?H bond of  is higher than that of O-H bond in . Therefore,  is a stronger acid than ethanol. Further, due to greater stabilization of peroxide ion (refer to structures on page 11/24) over phenol (refer to structures on page 11/24), phenol is A stronger acid than water. Thus, acidity of these three compounds increases in the order : ethanol < water < phenol.