Question

How many of the given compounds will react with $NaHC{O}_3$?

Answer 1

Among the given compounds, only three compounds will react with sodium hydrogen carbonate $(NaHC{O}_3)$. They are as follows:

$1.$ Benzoic acid $(C_6{H}_{5}COOH)$

$2.$ Acetic acid $(C{H}_{3}COOH)$

$3.$ $2,4,6$-trinitro phenol $(2,4,6-\left(N{O}_2{)}_3{C}_6{H}_{2}OH\right)$

Sodium hydrogen carbonate is a weak base. It reacts with the above compounds (having reasonable acidity) to form salt and water.

Other compounds are either very weak acids (such as phenol and p-methoxy phenol) or neutral (such as toluene and nitrobenzene).

Hence, they do not react with sodium hydrogen carbonate. $2,4,6$- trinitrophenol has sufficient acidity, as the three electron-withdrawing nitro groups increase the acidity of phenol and stabilise the negative charge by resonance.