Alcohols react with active metals e.g., Na, K etc., to give corresponding alkoxides. Write down the decreasing order of reactivity of sodium metal towards primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols.

Explanation

`R-OH +NararrR-O^(-)overset(+)Na+1//2H_(2)`
`underset("Alcohol"(1^(@),2^(@),3^(@)))(R-OH +Na)rarrunderset("Sod.alkoxide")(R-O^(-)overset(+)Na)+1//2H_(2)`
The reaction involves the cleavage of O-H bond. The decreasing order of reactivity of alcohols is :
primary `gt` secondary `gt` tertiary
For explanation, consult section 8.