Acidity of alcohols and phenols
(i) Reaction with metals: Alcohols and phenols react with active
metals such as sodium, potassium and aluminium to yield
corresponding alkoxides/phenoxides and hydrogen In addition to this, phenols react with aqueous sodium
hydroxide to form sodium phenoxides Sodium phenoxide
+ H O
2
OH
ONa
+
OH
Na
The above reactions show that alcohols and phenols are
acidic in nature In fact, alcohols and phenols are Brönsted
acids i