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

An electron releasing group produces +I effect so it increases the electron density on oxygen and decreases the polarity of O-H nond. As the number of alkyl group increases from `1^(@)` to `3^(@)` alcohols, the electron density on the O-H bond increases.
It will finally decrease the polarity and increase the strength of O-H bond in going from `1^(@)` to `3^(@)` alcohols. Thus, acidic strength decreases in the following order

As we know that, sodium metal is basic in nature and alcohols are acidic in nature. Thus, reactivity of alcohol with sodium metal decreases with decrease in acidic strength. Therefore, the correct order is `1^(@) gt 2^(@) gt 3^(@)`.