Give two reactions that show acidic nature of phenol Compare -acidity of phenol with that of ethanol .

Explanation

Two reactions which show acidic nature of phenol are as follows :
(i) With strong alkalies like `NaOH,KOH` etc ., phenol react to form salt and water (neutralisation).

(ii) With highly reactive metals like Na , K etc ., phenol gives hydrogen

comparison of acidic nature of phenol and ethanol ,in general phenols `(K_(a)=10^(8)-10^(-10))` one stronger acids than alcohol `(K_(a)=10^(-16)-10^(-18))` . This is illustrated by the following examples :
(a) Phenols turn blue litmus red , whilw alchols have no effect on litmus .
(b) Phenols react with `NaOH(aq)orKOH(aq)` to give correcponding salt water , while alcohols do not acidic nature of alcohols , water and phenols is in the order :
`Alcohols (K_(a)=10^(-16)-10^(-18))lt"Water"(K_(a)=10^(-14))lt"Phenol"(K_(a)=10^(-8)-10^(-10))`