C4H6O3 is the chemical formula for acetic anhydride. It can also written as (CH3CO)2O. Let us discuss about C4H6O3 +H2O reaction and some facts.
Acetic anhydride (C4H6O3) is an transparent liquid with no colour. It has strong smell like vinegar. The molecular weight of acetic anhydride is 102.09 g/mol. Acetic anhydride has some synonyms like acetyl acetate, acetyl anhydride, acetanhydride, etc. Acetic anhydride is used in pharmaceutical industries, explosives, plastics, dyes, fibers, etc.
C4H6O3 is a common molecular formula for more various chemical compounds rather acetic anhydride like acetoacitic acid, trimethylene carbonate, etc. Here, in this juncture we are discussing about hydrolysis reaction of acetic acid. The reaction of any chemical compound or molecules with water (H2O) is the hydrolysis reaction.
Hydrolysis of anhydrides are, however, in the presence of water are often facile where only slight heating is necessary for the reaction mixture. Acetic anhydride can rapidly hydrolysed when reacts with water, R-OH group containing compounds and catalysing acids. Anhydrides are mostly vigorously or highly reactive to nucleophilic attacks of nucleophilic compounds.
What is C4H6O3 + H2O?
C4H6O3 + H2O both are the chemical or molecular formulas. H2O is the chemical formula for water and C4H6O3 is the molecular formula for acetic anhydride, acetoacetic acid and trimethylene carbonates. Here we are considering C4H6O3 molecular formula for acetic anhydride and its hydrolysis reaction.
Acetic anhydride is not readily dissolve or soluble in water, its needs some outer energy or heat to dissolve in water at particular temperature. Acetic anhydride when reacts with water gives the formation of acetic acid which is a standard example of hydrolysis reaction. Mostly hydrolysis reaction is done in presence of some salts of weak bases or weak acids.
In hydrolysis reaction, H2O (water) gets auto ionize into H3O+ (hydronium ions) and OH- (hydroxyl ions). Hydronium ion (H3O+) acts as an catalysing acid and hydroxyl ion (OH-) acts as a nucleophile. But the H3O+ hydronium ion behaves as an weak acid due to which the hydrolysis in water becomes slow, for that we need to add some strong acid to proceed the reaction.
What is the product of C4H6O3 + H2O?
Acetic anhydride violently reacts with water and produce acetic acid (CH3COOH). This kind of reactions get amplified with the presence of some mineral acids like sulphuric acid (H2SO4), nitric acid (HNO3), percholic acid, etc. Acetic anhydride and water reaction is an dangerous reaction particularly in presence of the mineral acids i.e. H2SO4, HNO3, chrorric acid, perchloric acid, etc.
(CH3CO)2 + H2O → 2 CH3COOH
Acetic anhydride (C4H6O3 or (CH3CO)2O) are hydrolysed readily into carboxylic acids. In most of the cases, this hydrolysis reaction has an undesirable side reaction and precautions should take in the laboratory to maintain the system dry or free from water. In this hydrolysis reaction pyridine presence or use facilitates the proton (H+ ion) transfer during the reaction.
Carboxylic acid derivatives can be generally produced from acid anhydrides by nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction mechanisms. Thus, anhydrides are mostly produce carboxylic acids when reacts with nucleophilic agents like water (H2O), ammonia (NH3), amines (RNH2), ethanols (ROH), etc.
Also the anhydrides get produces by the combination of two carboxylic acids, thus anhydrides produced carboxylic acids when reacts with nuclephilic agents.
How to balance C4H6O3 + H2O?
C4H6O3 + H2O is the hydrolysis reaction between acetic anhydride (C4H6O3 or (CH3CO)2O) and water. Water molecule behaves as a nucleophile wahich attacks on acetic anhydride. Let us balance this equation using algebraic system or method.
C4H6O3 + H2O → C2H4O2
Step -1 Each compound get labelled with some variables like a, b, c and so on.
Each compound of the reaction like reactants and products in the equation get labelled with some variables like A, B, C, etc. to signify the unidentified coefficients.
A + B → C
- C2H4O3 + (B) H2O → (C) C2H4O2
Step – 2 Make some system for equations
Equation should be created for every element or atoms present in the reaction like Carbon atom, hydrogen atom and oxygen atom (C, H, O) in which each symbol or term represents the number of elements or the atoms present in each product or reactants.
C = 4 A + 0 B = 2 C
H = 6 A + 2 B = 4 C
O = 3 A + 1 B = 2 C
Step – 3 All the variables get solved with possible methods
Solve all the variables by using various possible methods like Gauss elimination or graphing calculator to solve each variable like C, H and O
- Using Gauss elimination or substitution
4 A – 2 C = 0
6 A + 2 B – 4 C = 0
3 A + 1 B – 2 C = 0
- Using calculator or graphing calculator
Use the Rref() function of your calculator to transform the following medium into reduced row-level-form:
( 4 0 -2 0 )
( 6 2 -4 0 )
( 3 1 -2 0 )
( 1 1 -1 6 )
The last column of the subsequent medium should contain answers for every or each of the coefficients of the reaction.
Thus the results shows with the lowest or whole integer values of the variable or compounds of the reaction.
A = 1 (C4H6O3)
B = 1 (H2O)
C = 2 (C2H4O2)
Step – 4 In last step substitute the coefficients and verify the results of the reaction.
1 C4H6O3 + 1 H2O = 2 C2H4O2
Atoms LHS RHS
C 4 4
H 8 8
O 4 4
(LHS = left hand side, RHS = right hand side)
So, the equal number of all elements (C, H and O) is present in the reactants and products of the equation C4H6O3 + H2O = 2C2H4O2, thus the equation get balanced.
What type of reaction is C4H6O3 + H2O?
C4H6O3 + H2O is an hydrolysis reaction as it has the reaction with water molecule. Here C4H6O4 is an anhydride and thus water molecule behaves as nucleophile which attacks on the anhydride molecule. So, the mechanism of this reaction is nucleophilic acyl substitution and hence this reaction is nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction.
Conclusion:
C4H6O3 + H2O is the hydrolysis reaction between acetic anhydride and water. This reaction is done with mild heating the reaction. The final product of this reaction is the formation of acetic acid (C2H4O2). This is a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction as the water molecule behaves as nucleophile and attacks on acetic anhydride,
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